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A TREATISE 



ON THE 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL AND SOCIAL 



MAN, 



WEITTEN "UNDEE FOETY CAPTIONS. 



WITH AN 







ESSAY ON MAN, 

EMBRACING FIFTEEN HEADINGS OK CAPTIONS, 
By HIEAM POWELL. 



" Seize upon truth wherever fotmd, 
On Christian or on heathen ground, 
Among your friends, among your foes, 
The plant's divine where'er it grows." 



CINCINNATI: 

Eobert Clarke & Co., Print, 

1871. 









PROGRESSION. 



Progression in the mighty past 
Rolls on forever more ; 
And God around the universe 
Sweeps like ocean round its shore" 



Entered according to Act of Congress, August, 1871, 

By HIRAM POWELL, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 



"O, God! the Father, Mighty One. 
In star, in planet and in sun, 
In atoms small, 
In rains that fall, 
In sunbeams making glorious all, 
Upon Thy sacred name we call." 



SPEAK THE TRUTH. 

"Speak the truth, and do not waver; 

Speak it boldly everywhere, 
Tho' it may displease or favor 

You with others here or there; 
Let your heart in early youth 
Act in nobleness and truth* 

"Speak the truth, though you're offending 
The profession of a friend; 
Speak thou not a lie, pretending 

It is better thus to end 
Some shameful gossip flying 
By a little act of lying. 

"Speak the truth, and speak it boldly, 

In the mansion or the cot, 
Tho' to some it seemeth coldly, 

And may never be forgot ; 
It should matter naught to thee, 
So thy soul from sin be free. 

"Speak the truth thro' life forever; 

Speak it simply, truly, kind; 
Let no one in you discover 

Seeds of misery in mind ; 
But be noble, be enduring, 
In the upward life pursuing." 



CONTENTS. 



PART I. 

CHAPTER PAGE 

Preface 7 

I. Bead the Best Books 9 

II. Rich and Poor — The Sources of Wealth and Poverty 12 

III. Aristocracy 19 

IY. Village Aristocracy 23 

V. The Other Side of the Picture 29 

YI. Proposal of a Basis 32 

VII. Faith and Knowledge 36 

VIII. Purposes of Life and the Principle of Morals 41 

IX. The Moral Law 48 

X. Obedience to the Laws of Nature Promotes Happiness 59 

XI. Liberality of Sentiment — Cheerfulness — Happiness 69 



PART II. 

AN ESSAY ON MAN. 

I. His Mind and Senses — Kesult of Organization 77 

II. His Nature is ever the Same 83 

III. His Positive and Self-Knowledge 87 

IV. His Education 99 

V. His Moral Accountability 108 

VI. His Personal Freedom 112 

VII. His Self-Improvement 115 

VIII. His Self-Respect and Life-time Duties 120 

IX. His Social Eights and Duties 124 

X. His Peculiarities and Varieties 129 

XI. His Moral Evil 132 

XII. His Penalties 135 

XIII. His Actions are the Results of Circumstances 140 

XIV. He is Held in the Arms of Necessity Forever 148 

XV. His Conflicting Elements and Opposing Forces Harmonized. 154 



VI CONTENTS. 

PART III. 

CHAPTEB PAGE 

I. Position and Privilege of Truth Speakers 165 

II. Origin and Nature of Government — Of Society 172 

III. Of the Sense of Justice — Of Remorse and of the Conscious- 
ness of Merit , . 181 

IY. Philosophy , 186 

V. Nature and Nature's Works 189 

YI. Social Reform — Circumstances M 199 

VII. Thoughts on Prejudice 204 

VIII. A Sketch of Natural History 201 

IX. Causes of Crime and Treatment of Criminals 215 

X. Punishment for Children 231 

XI. Mothers and their Daughters 238 

XII. Matter and Motion 243 

XIII. Philosophy, Mystery, and Mutation 246 

XIV. Land Monopoly 252 

XV. The Great Atlantic Cable, etc 269 



PEEFACE. 



In offering to the public this volume I have no apology to 
make, for it has been my constant effort to condense into 
as small a compass as possible the greatest amount of useful 
and practical knowledge in plain and familiar language; and, 
after long and tedious labor, am satisfied that I have so far 
succeeded in this object as to have presented in this book 
vastly more information in relation to the intellectual, 
moral, and social man than can be found in any other work 
of twice its size. 

Its author offers it with the hope that his readers will 
kindly and impartially investigate it with the spirit of a true 
philosopher, free from all idle tirade or senseless invectives; 
that they will peruse it, not with prejudice, but with a desire 
to discover truth; to enlarge, if possible, their store of useful 
knowledge, and hence to better their condition through life. 
Let them carefully investigate, analyze, submit to the closest 
test, every proposition advanced; then, and not until then, 
will they be prepared to receive and appreciate facts as they 
exist. Nevertheless, the writer is not so "green" as to ex- 
pect to please more than a large majority of his readers; to 
do much more would be a very bad indication, an indication 
that his labors are worthless. Indeed, he is convinced in ad- 
vance that his worthy readers will stumble on many propo- 
sitions or doctrines, which to them will be rather new, novel, 
and, perhaps, seemingly absurd; but, reader, you should not 



Vlll PREFACE. 

prejudge — rather peruse again, stop to think, to meditate, to 
investigate — because there surely ' will be found nothing 
wrong only your want of a greater familiarity with such sub- 
jects, only your want of abetter knowledge of natural laws, 
of first principles. 

It is utterly impossible to believe that which we can not 
understand or comprehend, although so many intelligent and 
well-meaning people too often yield a blind credence to this 
or that theory or doctrine; but such is not reasonable or 
philosophical belief. Indeed, strictly speaking, it is no be- 
lief at ail ; but that belief or conviction, which is based upon 
tangible evidence deduced from common-sense experience 
and sound philosophy, may be depended upon under all cir- 
cumstances as a sure and safe road to the Haven of Friend- 
ship, Love, and Truth. 

This volume is devoted to the great laws, principles, and 
influences which govern man mentally, morally, and so- 
cially — which underlie and control all his actions and affec- 
tions — as its title indicates, than which none are more neg- 
lected, none less understood, and yet none more important. 
They relate to and teach some of the dearest interests of 
human life, and gather within themselves some of the most 
useful questions of practical morality and religion. They 
take us by the hand, as it were, and lead us into the great 
temple of life, where sacred duties stand ministering around 
the altar of Human Wisdom, Benevolence, and Greatness. 

It is written (in outline) under forty headings or captions, 
including an essay on Man (of fifteen captions), perhaps the 
best to be found in the States, and which alone is worth, to 
almost any person, ten times the cost of this book. And as 
the author has, for the last thirty years, not only devoted 
much time and hard study to these subjects, but has also fre- 
quently written upon nearly all of them in the way of contri- 



PREFACE. IX 

butions to various journals, he entertains a confidence that 
this little donation is written upon true moral, religious, and 
scientific principles, and in a manner most definite, char, 
concise, and yet quite illustrative. 

It is a rare and rather novel work, containing a great deal 
of useful and practical information to be found nowhere else, 
and interspersed with many sentimental and appropriate se- 
lections of poetry, well calculated for all classes and ages of 
men and women, but more particularly for the young and 
rising generations. 

It contains a vast amount of what might be called domes- 
tic or social information — of all information the most useful — 
and which, if properly understood and reduced to practice, 
would work a happy reformation, morally and religiously, 
among the people ; would enable them to know themselves, 
and, consequently, to know all mankind ; would teach them 
to know (the great secret) wherein lies their true and best 
interest — that it lies in living less for ourselves and more for 
our dear race — that it lies in the universal equality and con- 
sequent prosperity and happiness (as nearly as can be) of all 
the sons and daughters of Adam; would induce them to cul- 
tivate peace, friendship, and charity, hence to respect the 
feelings, interests, opinions, and even prejudices of their 
neighbors ; to the end that our polluted streams of persecu- 
tion, condemnation, and (moral) execution for mere imaginary 
wrongs might dry up, might cease to flow; and, finally, 
that they might make peace with all mankind, and enjoy the 
life of practical, moral, and religious men and women under 
all circumstances, the following pages, to the friends of Sci- 
ence and Frogress, are dedicated by 

THE AUTHOR 



PREFACE. 

GOOD LIFE. 

"He liveth long who liveth well — 
All else is but life flung away; 
He liveth longest who can tell 

Of true things truly done each day. 

11 Then fill each hour with what will last, 
Buy up the moments as they go j 
The life above, when this is past, 
Is the ripe fruit of life below. 

"Sow love and taste its fruitage pure; 
Sow peace and reap its harvest bright ; 
Sow sunbeams on the rock and moor, 
And find a harvest home of light." 



GOOD COUNSEL. 

♦'Seek not to walk by borrowed light, 
But keep unto thine own; 
Do what thou doest with thy might, 
And trust thyself alone 1 

M Work for some good, nor idly lie 
"Within the human hive; 
And, though the outward man should die, 
Keep thou the heart alive. 

"Strive not to banish pain and doubt 
In pleasure's noisy din ; 
The peace thou seekest for without 
Is only found within. 

" If fortune disregard thy claim, 
By worth her slight attest ; 
Nor blush and hang thy head for shame, 
When thou hast done thy best. 

" Disdain neglect, ignore despair, 
On loves and friendships gone; 
Plant thou thy feet, as on a stair, 
And mount right up and on I" 



THE 

INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 



CHAPTER I. 

READ THE BEST BOOKS. 

Men live for one another more tnan for anything else, 
and the fact stands out on the face of society ; there- 
fore, their first and highest desire should be to know 
themselves, and hence to know each other — to learn 
those great laws, principles, and relations which govern 
and control the intellectual, moral, social, and religious 
man. Now to accomplish which, we must read the best 
books on history, literature, religion, and the various 
sciences. But much of what is called literature is not 
worth the reading — in fact, is worse than useless — mere 
trash and rubbish, creating a morbid, sickly sentimen- 
tality which aims at improbabilities; and the reader of 
such trash naturally imbibes the idea that " something 
is to turn up," that fortune and honor must be the result 
of some startling combinations instead of the reason- 
able conclusion that they are the effect of earnest appli- 
cation, close study, and hard brain work. 

Often after the exhaustion of reading such works, the 
desire is almost irresistible to seek a little recreation in 



10 



A TREATISE ON THE 



a broomstick ride through the ethereal regions, or a 
horseback ride to the moon. 

But all literature is not to be condemned, for we have 
considerable which is really valuable, abounding in 
flights of wit, flowers of thought, and mines of infor- 
mation ; we can not give it all up, but we must separate 
the dross from the gold. True literature is the natural 
food of the heart and brain, ennobling the mind, and 
expanding its powers; but false literature feeds the 
passions and dwarfs the soul. 

Reading is fast becoming the channel of information, 
nence we ought to be careful that no filth darkens the 
current. We should learn that rare art of discrimina- 
tion, and not condemn the fruit because poison lurks in 
the flower ; but the disposition to do this is becoming 
altogether too prevalent, and the sooner this idea be- 
comes obsolete the better for society. 

Our literary works should be drawn from nature — so 
clear and transparent that the mind's eye may look 
down in it and see the reflection of all the better traits 
of human nature, and catching the inspiration, press on 
to higher and nobler duties. That is the best book 
which your enlightened understanding tells you is true 
and beautiful — because in its truth you entrench your- 
self, while with its beauty you add the decorations — 
their truth and beauty become a part of yourself. 

We must not forget science — must build no wall be- 
tween it and the people ; because scientific knowledge 
and moral, intellectual, and physical development are 
natural allies and handmaidens of each other. 

Every family library should contain the best histories 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 11 

of our own and foreign countries, and standard works 
on physiology, natural, moral, and mental philosophy, 
the laws of marraige, of entailment, etc., etc.; also, 
geology, botany, agriculture, astronomy, atmospheric 
phenomena, etc., etc. Armed with these, the rocks, the 
plants and flowers, the earth and elements, become our 
companions; with these as the magic wand, the granite 
rock finds a tongue, the rose and the myrtle waves a 
nod of intelligence, the winds whisper of health and 
prosperity, while the elements thunder their loud re- 
sponse. What a field opens before us with these in our 
hands ! But powerful as they are, they must be accom- 
panied by careful observation and intelligent thought. 
We must not only read, but think, day and night; 
must analyze and get to the bottom of every subject; 
must learn the laws and relations involved — the whys 
and wherefores. 

Books are but the tools, the brain must work; there- 
fore, to read without mature reflection, is like storing a 
large number of tools to rust and rot for the want of 
use. 

Then let us "read the best books," and reading let 
us apply, engraft, and enlarge, leaving nothing to de- 
cay or corrode on the brain. 



12 A TREATISE ON THE 



CHAPTER II. 

RICH AND POOR — SOURCES OF WEALTH, ETC. 

In the unequal distribution of wealth, nature has not 
been so partial as the poor man generally imagines. 
The difference in the amount of happiness between the 
two persons depends upon their imaginary and unsat- 
isfied wants. Whoever saw a rich man have enough ? 
In the drawing-rooms of the affluent " luxury lies 
straining its low thought to form unreal wants," which, 
being too easily supplied, confer little pleasure. Their 
food is not seasoned with appetite, and indigestion turns 
it to disease. The wants of the humble are few, natural, 
and healthy. The bread of the poor man may be hard 
to get; he may sigh for the hour of repose; but when 
obtained, mark with what excellent appetite he enjoys 
them! He has pleasure that wealth can not command, 
and no costly conserves are so sweet as those that finish 
his repast. Appetite and digestion wait, and health is 
the priceless dessert. No gorgeous tapestry that adorns 
the canopy of luxury can match the rosy dreams that 
bedeck the couch of the lowly. 

" The rich man," says a Chinese proverb, "is a pig 
incumbered with fat." No figure can be more appro- 
priate. As wealth accumulates, the dread of using it 
accompanies; generosity tadeo. 



13 

Charity is shut out, and when a trifle is lost how it 
afflicts the soul! Wealth thus becomes a heavy burden 
that is dragged along with pain through life, and when 
at last death comes, how bitter the parting ! That the 
man of wealth does not work, that he is free from care, 
is a great mistake. The toil of the mechanic or com- 
mon laborer has its hour of limit, and sound sleep gives 
him refreshment; but the, toil of head work never 
ceases. The cares and anxieties of the rich haunt their 
midnight hours and poison sleep. The miserly pro- 
pensities that grow up with wealth make the rich man, 
at best, a hard working, ever wakeful watchman, hired 
at mean wages to guard a treasure which avails him 
but little. "Whoever saw a man made really more 
happy, more benevolent, more virtuous, by growing 
rich? What, then, have the poor to envy? 

Therefore let no man be ashamed that he has to per- 
form manual labor for a living. Let him only be 
ashamed of idleness, dishonesty, and bad habits. Let 
him not be ashamed of a hard hand nor a sunburnt 
face. Let him only be ashamed of subsisting like a 
drone upon the sweat and toil of others ; and let him 
always bear in mind, that if there be a high class, it is 
those who perform useful work for a living, and that 
the low class are the lazy and the idle. The working- 
man, conscious of his usefulness, upholds the dignity 
of his nature by a becoming self-respect that cringes 
to no superior. 

No man is blessed with greater exemption from care, 
and no hearth brightened with more domestic happi- 
ness. The artificer of all that gives pre-eminence to 



/ 



14 A TREATISE ON THE 

man, the founder of civilization and human glory, lie 
may stand boldly forth a model of the most noble and 
most useful work of nature upon the earth. 

Having discussed the relative merits, usefulness, and 
advantages existing between the rich and poor, will now 
inquire where wealth comes from. As follows : If a 
dealer in dry goods takes an account of his stock of 
property, a portion of it will be set down as a number 
of yards of cloth. 

Let us examine a piece of this — say a piece of sheet- 
ing — and see where the wealth in it comes from. 

In the first place, the cotton was raised on a southern 
plantation. The seed was planted in the ground, and 
when the plant came, it was plowed and hoed till the 
cotton was ripe, when it was picked, baled, and sent to 
market. Now by this process no new matter was cre- 
ated, and it is regarded by chemists and philosophers 
as a settled fact that matter can not be produced by 
man. The elements which form the cotton were pre- 
viously floating in the air or resting in the earth, and 
all the farmer did was to bring them together in new 
combinations, by which process he gave them value. 
After the bale of cotton reached the shipping port, it 
was placed on board a vessel and sent over the sea to 
the manufacturer. By this change of location addi- 
tional value was given to it. The merchant is not only 
just as really a producer of wealth as the farmer, but he 
produces wealth in the same way. Both of them give 
value to matter by changing its location. The manu- 
facturer draws the cotton out into long slender threads 
and weaves it into a web of cloth ; by this change of 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 15 

its form — of its several parts in relation to each other — 
gives it additional value. It then passes into the hands 
of the trader, who separates the large quantity into 
small parcels, convenient for use, and transports them 
into the neighborhoods where they will be wanted. By 
thus changing its location and the relation of the sev- 
eral parts to each other, he imparts to it additional 
value. The trader is a producer of wealth in the same 
sense as is the farmer or the manufacturer. 

There was a time when there was no wealth in the 
world : it is now to be reckoned by millions of millions ; 
and if we examine each item of it, we shall find that all 
this wealth has been produced by making changes in 
the form, or the relation of the parts, or the location of 
the several articles of which wealth consists. Let us 
take one more case, that of a ship. A certain value is 
given to the logs by cutting and transporting them to 
the saw-mill, changing their location. They receive 
additional value by being sawn into plank or timber, 
removing the surplus, changing the relation of their 
several parts to each other. The transportation to the 
ship-yard gives them additional value, changing their 
location. Then cutting away the portions which are 
not wanted and placing the materials together in the 
ship, gives them another installment of value. And 
thus is wealth produced, by changing the form of some 
material substance or the relation of its several parts to 
each other, or its location in such a way as to impart 
value to it. 

Now it will be observed that the reason why these 
changes give value to the material is, that they advance 



16 A TREATISE ON THE 

it a step in the process of adapting it to gratify some 
human want; but if labor is bestowed upon an article 
in a way not to have this effect, such labor adds noth- 
ing to its value, and of course does not increase the 
wealth either of the laborer or of the world. If the 
farmer works the whole season to raise a crop which 
will satisfy no want, his season's labor adds nothing to 
his own wealth or the wealth of mankind. If a manu- 
facturer makes such changes in the forms of his articles 
as not to increase their usefulness, be does not, by such 
changes, add anything to their value or to his own 
wealth and prosperity. If a merchant purchases hides 
in Boston and transports them to Buenos Ayres, where 
they are worth less than in Boston, he not only loses 
his own money, but diminishes the wealth of the whole 
world by the operation. 

Now, as regards the sources of poverty, there can be 
no doubt 'but a great deal of it is produced by causes 
entirely beyond our control, and I need not specify 
them in detail, for they will readily occur to every re- 
flecting mind. But still there are some complaints — in 
fact, there are many complaints — made continually in 
relation to hard times, the impossibility of paying debts, 
supporting families, and contributing to benevolent ob- 
jects, which are rather unreasonable than otherwise. 
Whether the old proverb is true or not, and I shall not 
stop now to discuss it, that "the poor are always prodi- 
gal," it does seem as if many who make the above 
complaints are the very persons who are expending 
every year nearly double what is necessary for unneces- 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 17 

sary and injurious articles of meat and drink, saying 
nothing of other superfluous habits and customs. 

They can hardly make out a meal unless four or five 
varieties of food and a quantum of strong tea or coffee 
are before them ; after which there must be cigars, and 
perhaps tobacco, and sometimes ardent spirits and other 
hurtful drinks are indulged in rather freely. Clogged 
as they are by this needless extra expense, and incapac- 
itated as they must be for the vigorous prosecution of 
business, by this excess in eating and drinking, it is no 
wonder that they find it difficult to keep their expendi- 
tures within their income. Now if these views be cor- 
rect, it would seem that if these people would only 
adopt those rules of diet and drink for themselves and 
families which experience and common sense point out 
as best calculated to promote their health and happi- 
ness, they would find their temporal concerns astonish- 
ingly improved. Instead of complaining of hard times, 
the difficulty of supporting their families and paying 
their debts, they would be continually rejoicing that 
their lot is cast in a part of the world where their facili- 
ties for obtaining the comforts, and even the luxuries of 
life, are unexampled, and where by honest industry and 
economy, they can not only do this, but obtain a sur- 
plus for meeting in a liberal manner the various calls 
which education, benevolence, and reform make upon 
their charity; and beside all this, have something hand- 
some left as a reserve for future exigencies. 

Is this saying too much, or will it be thought border- 
ing on fanaticism? Let any poor man who reads these 
lines keep an exact account of what he pays out for 



18 A TREATISE ON THE 

articles of consumption that in fact not only do him no 
good but really injure him, such as tea, coffee, pork, to- 
bacco, with certain other stimulants and luxuries (say- 
ing nothing of the foolishness and extravagance of un- 
necessary apparel), and the sum total will astonish 
him — will solve the question why there are so many 
homeless and destitute families — so many honest and 
well-meaning men who are forever unable to pay their 
rents and other debts. 

Tes, and all such who may chance to peruse these 
lines will readily admit that I am about right, when I 
declare that many of the causes of poverty might be con- 
veniently removed. 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 19 



CHAPTER III. 

ARISTOCRACY, 

The principle of aristocracy is founded in the extreme 
inequality of conditions. No man can be a useful mem- 
ber of society, except so far as his talents are employed 
in a manner conducive to the general advantage. In 
every society the produce, the means of contributing to 
the necessities and convenience sof its members, is of a 
certain amount ; and in every community the bulk at 
least of its members contribute, by their personal exer- 
tions, to the creation of this produce. What, then, can 
be more reasonable and just than that the produce itself 
should, with some degree of equality, be shared among 
them? What more injurious than the accumulating 
upon a few, comparatively speaking, every means of 
superfluity and luxury to the destruction, measurably, 
of the ease and plain but plentiful subsistence of the 
many? 

It may be calculated that the king even of a limited 
monarchy receives, as the salary of his office, an income 
equivalent to the labor of thirty or forty thousand 
men. 

The situation which the wise and good man would 
desire for himself, and for those in whose welfare he 
was interested, would be a situation of alternate labor 



20 A TREATISE ON THE 

and relaxation — labor that should not exhaust the frame, 
and relaxation that was in no danger to degenerate into 
indolence. Thus, industry and activity would be cher- 
ished, the frame preserved in a healthy tone, and the 
mind accustomed to meditation and reflection. This 
would be, measurably, the situation of the whole hu- 
man family if the supply of our wants were about 
equally distributed; but ignorance and aristocracy 
forbids. 

Can any system be more unnatural, unjust, and im- 
politic than that which converts more than half the 
people into mere working animals, annihilates so much 
thought, renders impossible so much virtue, and extri- 
pates so much happiness ? 

Yes, it is truly a humiliating and deplorable circum- 
stance that so large a proportion of the people in every 
country are forced to become, as it were, mere working 
animals, and thereby deprived of the precious oppor- 
tunity of properly developing their intellectual, moral, 
and social faculties; while a minority of inflated aris- 
tocrats wallow in unnecessary wealth, living in extrav- 
agance, dissipation, and idleness, considering labor dis- 
graceful and the laboring class as an inferior order of 
beings, when they are, in fact, the more useful and bet- 
ter class — the bone and muscle, the life and salvation, of 
every country. Yea — 

" The noblest men I know on earth 

Are those whose hands are brown with toil; 

Who, backed by no ancestral groves, 
Hew down the wood and till the soil; 

And win thereby a prouder name 

Than follows the king or warrior's fame. 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 21 

"The workingmen, whate'er the task, 

Who carve the stone or bear the hod; 
They bear upon their honest brows 

The royal stamp and seal of God ; 
And worthier are their drops of sweat 

Than diamonds in a coronet. 

11 God bless the workingmen, 

Who rear the cities of the plain, 
Who dig the mines, who build the ships, 

And drive the commerce of the main. 
God bless them, for their toiling hands 

Have wrought the glory of all lands." 

There is no mistake or vice more thoroughly to be 
deplored on this subject than that persons sitting at 
their ease and surrounded by all the conveniencies of 
life, who are apt to exclaim, "we find things very well 
as they are ;" and to inveigh bitterly against all projects 
of reform as "the myths and romances of visionary 
men, and the declamations of those who are never to 
be satisfied/' Now, is it well that so large a part of 
nearly every people, who are natural heirs to a fair por- 
tion of the soil and to the produce of their own labor, 
should be kept in penury, rendered stupid with igno- 
rance and disgustful with vice, perpetuated in poverty 
and degradation, goaded to the commission of crimes, 
and made the unhappy victims to the merciless laws 
which the rich have instituted to oppress them, to starve 
them, to degrade them, to enslave them, and very often 
to imprison and execute them, while they themselves 
commit far greater crimes, but who, with their ill-got- 
ten treasure, generally purchase their ransom ; or, which 
is more common, outwit the laws, and go scot-free to 



22 A TREATISE ON THE 

repeat their crimes. Then, would it be sedition to in- 
quire whether this state of things may not be exchanged 
for a better ? 

Or can there be anything more humiliating and de- 
grading than for such men, calling themselves " gentle- 
men," to exclaim that " all is right," merely because 
they are floating along at their ease, regardless of the 
misery, degradation, and vice that may be occasioned in 
the less favored of their worthy race. 

These are but some of the disgraceful and fatal effects 
of our present favorite system of land monopoly, and 
it does seem almost useless to write, lecture, or preach 
against it — against such a great crime— for men are deter- 
mined not to think. 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 23 



CHAPTER IV. 

VILLAGE ARISTOCRACY. 

In almost every village of much importance, there is, 
among certain persons who would be considered, or 
who fancy themselves to be, actually above others, a 
spirit of pride, or what is called aristocracy, which is 
certainly one of the greatest evils ; and I should be 
pardoned for calling it one of the greatest curses that 
can afflict any community. A great deal of it is to be 
found among those who, in consequence of their over- 
reaching in business, have succeeded in accumulating 
the greatest amount of wealth. Yes, I say, a great share 
of it is confined to the rich people of this character; but 
generally those who have obtained wealth by honest 
industry are still too honest, too sensible and worthy, 
to consider themselves above their industrious, honest, 
but less gifted or less fortunate fellow-citizens. But I 
believe that far the greater part of this low and foolish 
pride is confined to people who are measurably poor ; 
such as shackled traders, merchants, grocers, and very 
many industrious and honest mechanics, who possess, 
unfortunately, much more vanity than practical intelli- 
gence. 

Some official and professional distinctions also not 
tinfrequently operate to feed that vanity and self-es- 



24 A TKEATISE ON THE 

teem which conduce to the evil of which I am com- 
plaining, while at the same time a good share of those 
officers and professors are incompetent and otherwise 
unworthy to enjoy their positions ; for I observe that it 
is a common practice among civil officers to first con- 
sider the interest of themselves and favorites before that 
of the public good, dispensing favors around with pub- 
lic money, to secure friends, " to sell calico," creating 
large debts and liabilities on the people without their 
consent, and in violation of the laws before them, etc. 

And we yet have another class less useful but more to 
be pitied than the above — men who have no stability and 
concentration, and but little tact for any literary busi- 
ness, and being, the most of them, too lazy to labor, are 
obliged to battle around at one little business or another, 
always hard up for means to keep their poor souls and 
bodies together. Consequently they contract debts here 
and there, promising to pay at stated times, but owing to 
a want of nerve and moral stamina fail to come to time ; 
thus it goes with them from bad to worse, forever prom- 
ising to pay, but too often never paying, obtaining about 
the one-half of their living by deception and intrigue, 
until they finally contract fixed habits of lying and dis- 
honesty — of dishonesty and lying. Hence it is obvious 
that no lazy and trifling man can possibly possess a good 
character for truth and veracity — that no aristocratical, 
self-wise, and self-righteous man can possibly be a 
Christian. 

Aristocrats of these descriptions are confined to no 
party, order, or sect exclusively — their place is always 
with what happens to be most popular; and were mon- 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 25 

archy or Mohametanism looked upon in the localities 
where they reside as the most popular, they would be 
loyal monarchists or flaming Mohametans — anything 
and everything, right or wrong, decent or indecent, just 
so it is popular and fashionable. 

A want of good sense and principle are at the bot- 
tom of a love of this kind of popularity and village aris- 
tocracy; but such is, at this time, the raging inclination of 
nearly the one-fifth of all the world, a large proportion 
of whom are homeless, but enjoying good health and fair 
wages — labor hard from morn till night, yet foolishly 
squander the greater part of their income for mere im- 
aginary wants, for empty show and parade, in order to 
keep pace with other vain and thoughtless people, for 
rich and costly attire, furniture, ornaments, luxuries, 
condiments, etc. 

Now the one-half of these expenditures could be 
saved and laid up to secure the real and enduring ad- 
vantages and comforts of life — to obtain bountiful dom- 
iciles, and to educate and outfit their children. 

But instead of exercising such wisdom and fore- 
sight, they blindty and recklessly hurry on through 
time as if old age and want could never overtake them; 
they live for no good purpose, forever remaining poor 
in order to appear rich and fashionable — a pernicious 
example to their children and to the young and rising 
generations, dragging them into vanity, extravagance, 
dissipation, and crime. 

But my readers must not suppose from the foregoing 
remarks that I am opposed to people dressing and liv- 
ing decently and genteelly, for such is not the fact. 



26 A TREATISE ON THE 

Nothing has pleased me more than to see at the 
churches, the schools, and at all public gatherings, every 
man, woman, and child attired in a plain, comely, neat, 
and appropriate manner — in a manner so as not to at- 
tract any particular notice, either on account of osten- 
tation or neglect. Indeed, such should be the custom 
and style everywhere and on every occasion, particu- 
larly in the churches and scliools; and how much better 
would it not look to all sensible and benevolent gentle- 
men and ladies, and would not a great deal more kind- 
ness, sociability, and love abound than we now find in 
our so-called social circles ? 

Nothing is so odious to me as aristocracy, for it is 
the infallible evidence of immoral and little minds ; and 
I regard it as pardonable to look with pity and con- 
tempt on all those who manifest it. 

Are not*all men of a common parentage and equally 
free and independent? Should not character, real 
worth, and public utility constitute the only claim to 
honor, respect, and distinction ? How, then, is it that 
so many of those who boast of benevolence and justice 
on their tongues look with a sort of scorn and sovereign 
contempt upon their more worthier neighbors, merely 
because they do not exhibit on public occasions so much 
rich and costly " store clothes " — merely because they 
may not possess so long a purse, or may not have been 
so successful in filling it at the sacrifice of other's prop- 
erty ? It is because they are really unwise, self-inflated, 
and vicious, possessing in their souls but litttle true honor, 
love, and humanity. Such men are not, practically, 
friends to themselves, to society, to their race, or to the 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 27 

genius of our social institutions; they do not believe, 
or will not allow, that all men are (in the sight of their 
Creator) equally useful and worthy. Perhaps their 
fathers were rich, and this has made them a higher 
order of beings than their fellows ; or, by their bold- 
ness and impudence, they have succeeded in attracting 
more of the gaze and astonishment of the multitude, 
and this would make it disgraceful in them to descend 
to the level of worth and virtue where their neighbors 
are generally found. 

To chastise and correct such people the most effectu- 
ally, they should never have conceded to them, by the 
citizens, that claim to superiority which they so much 
covet. 

All good men should so behave toward them as to 
convince them at sight that they do, in reality, look 
down upon them with as much pity as they affect to 
look upon others with contempt. 

They seem not to know that all classes are equally 
necessary in any community ; that it requires each and 
every one with their various occupations to form the 
great social chain ; and that the loss of the lowest or 
meanest (link) class, so-called, would destroy the whole 
chain, would wreck society, all civilization ; and hence 
we would soon fall back to the point from whence we 
started — to savage ignorance and barbarity. 

Therefore, it is obvious that all men of every class 
and occupation merit the sympathy, respect, and sup- 
port of their fellows ; and that all this low and foolish 
pride or village aristocracy is but the legitimate result 
of inborn ignorance or of improper education; be- 



28 A TREATISE ON THE 

cause we see that all persons of real worth and intelli- 
gence possess too much consideration, discretion, and 
humanity to let themselves down to such a low plane. 

It is true that, by a fundamental law of nature, va- 
rieties, pecularities, affinities, orders, and distinctions 
abound throughout all creation ; hence it is but natural 
and right that the same shall exist morally, socially 
and religiously among men ; but all orders and distinc- 
tions should be based upon true moral, just, and benev- 
olent principles, upon character, upon intrinsic worth 
and utility, free from all self-inflation, unkindness, and 
bigotry so common among very many shallow-pated 
but aristocratical self-wise and self-righteous people. 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 29 



CHAPTER V, 

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE PICTURE. 

It is to be regretted that a difference of opinion on the 
various subjects should be construed into a cause for 
enmity and separation among men ; for even if it should 
be more pleasant to associate with persons who agree 
with ourselves in sentiment, it is certainly more useful 
to communicate with our opponents. 

If we live and converse with those only who live and 
believe as we do, we are very apt to fly into extremes, 
by pushing our own views and principles beyond the 
lines of demonstration and prudence; whereas, friendly 
intercourse with dissenters from our own creed, party, 
or doctrines corrects the bias of undue partialities and 
prejudices, and sometimes saves us from errors into 
which an unreasoning attachment to the offspring of 
our own imaginations serve to betray us. 

Organized parties often strengthen the hands and 
confirm the hearts of their members; but they also excite 
their passions and prejudices, and not unfrequently blind 
their eyes and obscure their judgments to such an ex- 
tent that they can scarcely see a fault of a brother, but 
always wide awake to the misgivings of others equally 
worthy. 

Contradiction, if it be not rude or illiteral, is generally 



80 A TREATISE ON THE 

very wholesome ; but the intolerant feeling which in- 
duces a man to shun the society of those who do not 
chance to see as he does, deprives him of that very so- 
ciety which, of all others, is best calculated to instruct 
and improve him. 

Like a spoilt child, he is then in great danger of 
learning to talk nonsense without opposition, of being 
capricious and extravagant without ever finding it out, 
his idlest whims and fancies being treated with respect 
and favor, until he finally mistakes them for infallible 
truths. 

And, in short, for the want of a little correction, argu- 
ment, and admonition, he is almost certain to lose his 
modesty and good temper, and ultimately to become a 
violent, unreasonable, and disagreeable sort of a fellow. 
Nor must we imagine that this applies only to persons 
whose opinions may be false and pernicious, but to all 
men ; for no man is unerringly wise, and the very best 
principles may run up to the seeds of extravagance for 
the want of proper pruning and culture. 

Therefore, however sincerely and positively a man 
may believe his own opinions true, that is no excuse for 
refusing to listen and to converse with those whose 
minds have been differently improved. 

If our own creed or convictions should chance to be 
imperfect or false, we have thus an opportunity to de- 
tect their imperfections or discover their falsehood ^ if 
they be true and just, we shall at least be warned from 
extremes, and wavering convictions may be confirmed, 
and the stamp of reason added to the idle words of be- 
lief. 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 31 

In either case we shall probably become wiser and 
better, because more tolerant, more moderate, more so- 
ciable, and perchance more modest and just beings; 
and while we may be more thoroughly convinced than 
before of our own accuracy, we shall, at the same time, 
be more courteous and reasonable in expressing that 
conviction. 

Let us, then, never shun our adversaries and oppo- 
nents; for, even if we can not change their sentiments, 
we may learn to improve and correct and define our 
own, and should we fail to win their confidence, we 
may at least secure their good will and respect. 



32 A TREATISE ON THE 



CHAPTER VI. 

PROPOSAL OF A BASIS. 

All the conditions of man and his mental peculiari- 
ties are now traced mostly to physical causes and con- 
ditions, exhibiting clear and determining laws. The 
instinct of animals and the mental conditions of men 
are phenomena exhibited as a consequence of their 
condition and the influences which have been acting 
upon them. This is now as clearly understood as the 
physical conditions and cause of the rainbow and of the 
thunder-storm. What men are for the most part be- 
lieving now is a kind of insanity ; but, as Bacon says, 
truly, "Those who resolve not to conjecture and divine, 
but to discover and know; not to invent buffooneries 
and fables, but to inspect, and, as it were, dissect the 
nature of man and the external world, must derive their 
knowledge from scientific facts and from things them- 
selves." 

We know nothing fundamental of nature, nor can 
we conceive anything of the nature of the primary 
cause. We know not, nor can we know, what things 
really are, but what they seem to be to us, and the re- 
lations of their appearances. Whatever is, must have 
a form of being and action. It can not be what it is 
not, but must be subject to the form or law of its being 
or constitution. Even suppose the mind was an entity 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 33 

separate from the body, and acting independently ot 
the body, it must still have a nature of its own, and be 
determined by the form of that nature; and this form 
of being and action we term law. Nothing can be of 
itself, or change its condition, unless it be acted upon 
by something else. A man can not of himself, or by 
his will, become a tree, any more than a triangle can by 
any means become a circle ; nor are more causes to be 
admitted than are sufficient to produce any particular 
change or effect. Hence we require no supernatural 
causes when we can recognize adequate natural causes 
inherent in the constitution of nature; and for every 
effect there is a sufficient cause, and all causes are nat- 
ural, influenced by surrounding forces and circum- 
stances. I observe that drunkenness and madness, 
idiotcy, genius, sleep, dreams, charity, are effects, the 
consequence of our natural condition — of entailment 
and other circumstances — absolutely and wholly so; for 
if I pour a bottle of wine down a man's throat, he be- 
comes drunk ; and if I press a splinter of bone into the 
brain, madness ensues; but drunk or sober, mad or 
idiotic, a man is at all times the result of certain forces 
and influences. 

Some men are, as it were, " a law unto themselves," 
while others, by their nature, are disposed to thieve 
and murder. Some men are wolves by their nature, 
and some are lambs ; hence it is vain to talk as if men 
made themselves what they are, as if entailment and 
surroundings had no influence over them. But society 
must be protected from the evil-disposed, and men 
must be responsible to take the consequences of their 



34 A TREATISE ON THE 

acts ; but not uncharitably, as if they had selected their 
own parents, country, education, and surroundings. 

Again, if I place a naturally good disposition under 
favorable circumstances, goodness is invariably the re- 
sult ; whereas, if I place a naturally ill-disposed person 
under unfavorable circumstances, evil is necessarily the 
result. We now can perceive precisely why men think 
as they do ; how they are deceived by their own 
thoughts and feelings ; otherwise, their seeming total 
apathy — their inability to comprehend the nature of 
science and the necessity of universal law. My great- 
est desire in life is to acquire knowledge, and a knowl- 
edge of human nature in particular— that being the 
most important and the most needed. And I would 
freely utter, on all occasions, what I know and believe 
honestly and without reserve, or the regard for the 
opinion of a world which is full of superstition and un- 
charitable prejudice on the one side, while on the other 
we see the mental powers of men crushed by excessive 
labor or excessive indolence and indulgence — man 
everywhere being against his fellow-man. 

No moral principle or religious system will elevate m,en 
and set them free, except such as is based on a knowledge of 
causes and the result of a true science of human nature. 

This position we may stand upon as on a rock, " and 
thence observe the wanderings up and down of other 
men." But I do not wish to dispute with any men 
about their morals, or their laws of expediency; yet I 
do say that all the systems of the whole world are very 
imperfect — they being all founded too much on error — 
in the ignorance of natural causes — in the ignorance of 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 35 

the great laws of mind; yet, nevertheless, sufficient for 
the age, and should be reverenced none the less. We 
must exhibit the real fundamental and natural causes 
of men's thoughts; and out of a knowledge of human 
nature will grow a wisdom and revelation of principles 
which will revolutionize the world, and become the 
guide of man in legislation and education. Let us, then, 
not assume anything, but "prove all things, hold fast 
that which is good." Thus may we lay hold of the sci- 
ence of human nature ; and until we recognize this sci- 
ence, we shall live in a rude and dark age, and will 
have but little moral and mental health in us. 



36 A TREATISE ON THE 



CHAPTER VII. 

FAITH AND KNOWLEDGE. 

" Is it nothing to have faith in nature, to have faith 
in knowledge and in goodness which is the fruit of 
knowledge, and which gives us an elevated poetry, 
gives us the chart and laws of mind to guide us, gives 
us higher objects for veneration? Is it nothing to have 
faith in love ? Is it nothing to regard nature in all her 
forms with profound reverence? To have truth and 
worship goodness, and find no place for contempt of 
any living thing or condition of matter? Trained in 
the knowledge of the laws of mind to find it impos- 
sible to take offense, to feel a hatred or vindictive spirit 
toward any living person, however great their offense? 
What a soothing and happifying influence! What a 
blessing this one circumstance ! What a foundation for 
virtue and generosity ! Is it nothing to cast away vain 
ambition and to desire true excellence? To feel a 
noble contentment in reflecting that we are a part of 
nature — a form of the eternal? Is the're nothing in 
that faith which seeks for happiness out of self, in the 
happiness of others and the glories of nature? I have 
watched the influence and working of men's faith, and 
learned to estimate their prejudices and habits of mind, 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 37 

and the force of the different weights which balance 
and move their thoughts; and when men disparage one 
another, and bluster about as champions of faith, wis- 
dom, and piety, we may know what is going on — "by 
what string the puppet has been moved" — and he ceases 
to have power over me. I can not be moved except by 
the force of reason and justice, and the example of a 
disinterested life. It is the light of truth which should 
guide our steps; it is the warmth of goodness which 
must develop the latent good that is in us. How little 
they who are pleased to represent human nature as en- 
tirely selfish — that even goodness is a selfishness! How 
little they understand the laws of mind, and how, for 
instance, the impulse of benevolence, the love of truth, 
or the sense of beauty, is wholly independent of self- 
ishness. Of course, as a part of nature, as a creature 
of necessity — of entailment and education, as governed 
by law — man is neither selfish nor unselfish, neither 
good nor evil, worthy nor unworthy; but simply na- 
ture and what is possible to nature, and could not be 
otherwise, yet responsible for all his acts. 

" The world is full of insane doctrines and customs, 
fashioned in our ignorance, and each thinks that he can 
see the insanity and corruption of his neighbors, but 
can not see his own. The restless and craving absurd- 
ity of human wisdom may truly be called vain philos- 
ophy. Men are taught logic; but it would seem to be 
the most useless invention, seeing that they afterward 
believe in the most illogical conclusions. They are 
taught, in fact, to believe in what is intellectually most 
absurd and monstrous, and morally vicious and most 



38 A TBEATISE OX THE 

barbarous— are taught to proscribe, slander, condemn, 
and execute, without investigation, their more worthy 
neighbors ; and that for mere imaginary wrongs. 

" We must speak out the truth that is within us, even 
though we shall offend our mother or sister, or our 
dearest friend; for we live not for the past, but for the 
future. A man is loved for his virtue so long as his 
virtue gives no offense to the prejudices, vanities, or 
vices of the self-wise and self-righteous. 

" The reformer must disturb the opinions of many, and 
he is a demon and robber, and breaks into men's habrrs 
and robs them of the opinions which may have been 
their stay, their character, their wealth, child, and idol. 

" Until the philosophy of human nature be admitted 
among the sciences, and laws and material conditions 
of mind understood, it seems to me that we are little 
removed from the pagans, and are still living in the 
dark ages." 

HAVE FAITH. 

" Have faith and worry not for to-morrow, 

Leave things of the future to fate; 
Never best to anticipate sorrow, 

Life's troubles come never too late. 
If to hope over much be an error, 

It is one which the wise have preferred, 
And how often have hearts been in terror, 

By fearing what never occurred. 

"Have faith and thy faith shall sustain thee; 
Permit not suspicion and care, 
"With invisible hands to enchain thee, 
But bear what God giveth to bear. 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 39 

By his Spirit supported and gladdened, 

Be ne'er by forebodings deterred; 
But think how oft hearts have been saddened, 

By fearing what never occurred. 

"Have faith and worry not for to-morrow; 

Short and dark as our life may appear, 
We may make it still shorter by sorrow, 

Still darker by folly and fear. 
Half our troubles are half our invention, 

And often from blessings conferred 
Have we shrunk, in the wild apprehension 

Of fearing what never occurred. " 

— Romancing rather than using our " gift of reason." 

"We exhibit our fine fabrics to all the world ; but of 
the fabric of the mind we know but little: and stranger 
still to say, we do not seem to care to know much. We 
follow our crude notions and blind instincts like a very 
worm that crawls, rather than walk erect in true man- 
hood and the light of knowledge. We neglect the 
true prerogative of man, to know himself, and to guide 
himself by that knowledge. We try to frighten men 
to good behavior, and endeavor to patch up grievances, 
and the last thing we appeal to is the law and authority 
of nature herself. As knowledge advances, step by 
step, the world falls back upon precedents and parch- 
ments, endeavoring to shut out the light and ruin the 
philosophy; and the noblest benefactors of their race 
have been scoffed at in the streets, and hunted out of 
their country, like poor Windsor, for his gas-lighting, 
who, escaping with his life, died in poverty abroad. It 
will be long, I fear, before there is any efficient and 
general system of training and education, and men 



40 A TREATISE ON THE 

fully recognize the fact that the interest of each is in 
the advancement of the whole, and that the many are 
not to be sacrificed for the selfish aggrandizement of 
the few. Atkinson, F. GL S. 

progress. 

"Steadily, steadily, step by step, 
Up the venturous builders go, 
Carefully placing stone on stone; 
Thus the loftiest temples grow." 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 



41 



CHAPTER VIII. 

PURPOSES OF LIFE, AND THE PRINCIPLE OF MORALS. 

" Oh ! what were life's dull transient hour, 
Without its sunshine and its shower ; 
Its day of gloom, and doubt's dark dream, 
And hope's succeeding, brightening beam V 9 

I believe that human life rightly understood and 
rightly used is a beneficient gift, and that it can be so 
understood and used. 

It is irreconcilable to reason that man comes into this 
world only to suffer and to mourn ; it is from his own 
ignorance, folly, or errors that he does so. He is capa- 
ble of informing himself, and the means of doing this 
are, generally, in his power; and if he were truly in- 
formed, he would not have to weep over his follies and 
transgressions. 

It is not contended that every one can escape at once 
from a benighted condition, and break into the region 
of light, reason, and good sense. But it is most clear 
from what is well known to have transpired in the 
world, that each generation may, and have, improved 
upon the preceding one ; and that each individual, in 
every successive period of time, may better know the 
true path from perceiving how others have gone be- 
fore him. 



42 A TREATISE ON THE 

There can be no miracle in this; and it will, at best, 
be a slow progress; and the wisdom attained in one 
age, must command the respect of succeeding ones, and 
receive from them the melioration which they can con- 
tribute. 

We understand nothing of what is called the per- 
fectibility of human nature, but we understand this, 
that if human nature can be made to know wherein its 
greatest good consists, it may be presumed that this good 
will be sought and obtained. Man was formed on this 
principle, and he acts on this principle, although he is 
seen so frequently to make the most deplorable and dis- 
tressing mistakes ; hence if it be not admitted that man- 
kind will always strive to obtain whatsoever seems to 
them good, and strive to avoid whatsoever seems to them 
evil, then of course their moral teaching is in vain. If 
this principle be admitted, the sole inquiry is, what is 
good and what is evil? 

These terms are defined in another part of this work 
in the following manner : The terms good and evil are 
merely relative; the same as up and down; up at one 
time being down at another, and vice versa. But all 
acts which are most necessary and fitly, producing the 
greatest good to the greatest number, present or future, 
may be called good or necessary, and vice versa. 

Now the history of the theory of morals, or of 
practical philosophy, comprises hardly anything but a 
description of the continuous attempts that have been 
made to answer also the following questions : By what 
quality of the mind are we led to form moral distinc- 
tions ? What is that highest and fundamental princi- 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 43 

pie which regulates and is implied in every mode of 
virtuous or moral action ? 

I propose to pass in review the most celebrated the- 
ories which have been offered in answer to the latter 
question. It has at all times been found desirable, and 
the best interests of society seem to demand it, that the 
foundation of morals should depend on an immutable 
and well-defined principle, from which can be deduced 
every law, maxim, and precept of duty and obligation. 

The Principle of Individual Happiness or Rational Self- 
Love. 

"Whatever difference of opinion there may prevail 
with regard to the notion of happiness, all seem to 
agree in opinion that the consciousness of the agreeable 
forms its essence. It is undeniable that we ought and 
have a right to seek and promote our happiness, and 
that eventually our happiness can only be secured by 
the practice of virtue — (Epicurus). We can hardly im- 
agine a more powerful motive of human actions than 
this native, ever present, and irresistible desire of well- 
being. But in order to derive a fundamental and com- 
prehensive principle of morals from the universality and 
force of this desire, it would first be necessary to con- 
vince all mankind that only the sensation of a certain 
class of pleasurable feelings are worthy to be enjoyed. 
There is such a great diversity in the conception of hap- 
piness, not only among different individuals, but also in 
the same persons at various times and under various 
conditions, that it were a hopeless task to propose 



44 A TREATISE ON THE 

moral maxims, on the strength of this principle, for 
general adoption. 

Virtue and happiness are not identical ideas. Com- 
mon sense makes an easy distinction between the con- 
sciousness of inner worth or moral dignity and the 
sensation and satisfaction of the agreeable. To be vir- 
tuous is something more than being happy, even in 
popular estimation. If happiness be limited to the feel- 
ing of that serenity and elevation of mind which con- 
sists in discharging to the best of our knowledge and 
power all the duties in the various relations of life, and 
to the proper development and exercise of all our men- 
tal and bodily functions, it were still inadequate to be- 
come the principle of the whole of morals, for virtue 
is nevertheless something more yet than all this. 

Many a virtuous man is sustained under the load of 
misery and wretchedness which destiny had in store for 
him, by the bracing influence of conscious innocence 
and rectitude, but who would smile bitterly at the im- 
putation of his happy state and condition. I esteem 
and admire such a man, but envy not his fate. 

The Principle of the Greatest Good to the Greatest Number. 

The moral maxim which flows from this principle 
requires that we should invariably prefer the welfare of 
the many to that of the few, in order to obviate the 
clash of duties, to harmonize the functions of justice, 
and thereby produce the greatest amount of happiness. 

This principle includes, at the most, only a very small 
part of morals, and sets up a rule which measures ac- 
tions according to their extensive and not intrinsic 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 45 

worth; and it is also more plausible than just, and 
however noble it sounds, and undoubtedly useful it is, 
as a subordinate principle of morals, yet designing men 
and despots have commonly resorted to it, and much to 
the injury of society. 

The Principle of General Benevolence. 

That quality of the mind which greatly exercises its 
functions for the promotion of the general good, and 
engages its benign influences for the real happiness of 
others, is certainly a fruitful source of virtuous deeds — 
(Hutcheson). But it is impossible to formulate a moral 
maxim, on the basis of general benevolence, which pays 
regard to all the diversified duties of life. 

Considerations of utility and fitness of things must 
greatly enter into its construction, to make it available 
for a fundamental and unexceptional principle of 
morals. 

The Principle of Utility — (Helvetius). 

A vast number of social and public virtues originate 
from a knowledge of their usefulness, and it may be 
safely asserted that the exercise of morality is never 
without its accompanying utility. It is, however, far 
from being true that moral approbation is uniformly 
elicited by considerations of the usefulness of virtuous 
actions. 

Many praiseworthy efforts can not be attributed to a 
motive which postulates itself on self-love. 



46 A TREATISE ON THE 

The Principle of Truth — ( Wollaston). 

The moral maxim derived from this principle pre- 
scribes that our will should at all times act in conform- 
ity to the laws of truth, as established in the nature of 
things and their relations. According to this principle, 
every sin or transgression is the effect of ignorance or 
of an error of judgment, and every improvement in 
character marks a step in the advancement of knowl- 
edge. 

It is nevertheless always dangerous to make morals 
dependent on a general theory of truth, for this itself 
requires an exposition which experience has shown is 
not calculated to produce the desired unanimity of ac- 
quiescence — (The Stoics, Academicians). ]S"or is it uni- 
versally true that man is vicious only on account of his 
ignorance and false reasoning, for persons frequently sin 
against their better knowledge and conscience, being 
controlled by their excessive appetites and passions. 

The Principle of the Harmonious Development of all the 
Qualities of our Nature to their utmost Degree of Per- 
fection. 

A number of excellent moral maxims may be deduced 
from this principle as a means of securing individual 
and social happiness ; but it were a delusion to imagine 
that because we can group everything that is good 
under the head of perfection, that we have thereby 
really found the highest and most comprehensible moral 
principle, for it may be asked what becomes of those 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 47 

duties which oblige us to practice a self-denial not al- 
ways short the sacrifice of life itself? I may answer 
that reason justifies, and that the good of our race fre- 
quently calls for it, and that those who voluntarily give 
their lives for their kind, perform the highest moral act 
known to humanity. 



43 A TREATISE ON THE 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE MORAL LAW. 

This is a subject of vast importance, and to investi- 
gate it properly we must not only take common sense, 
reason, and experience for our guide, but we must also 
keep in view those great laws and principles which under- 
lie and control the actions of men. The Moral Law is 
that power which controls and governs the actions, 
affections, and mental intercourse of men. It is the 
basis of all good governments, good society, and true 
religion; but which is, nevertheless, shamefully neg- 
lected — scarcely ever spoken of; no, not even from the 
pulpit. True moral action consists in the exercise of 
benevolence, justice, and equality, in being not only 
useful to ourselves, but in doing all in our power to 
improve the condition of others. 

We believe that the material world is governed by 
inexorable laws, which can not be violated or sus- 
pended ; and that intellectual beings are in like manner 
subjected to laws — the physical, intellectual, moral, and 
social — and that they have learned, more or less per- 
fectly, what these laws are, and their nature and pur- 
poses. That in all the term of life possessed by each 
individual, he is under the necessity of doing certain 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 49 

acts for himself and relatively for those with whom he 
is associated by family ties and by social bonds. 

That he ought to abstain from acts which are inju- 
rious to himself and others, and from acts which dis- 
turb the good order and harmony of the political asso- 
ciation of which he is necessarily a member. 

Now if we so believe, then such belief should be fol- 
lowed by the conviction that we must learn and con- 
form to the rules and precepts which are adapted to 
accomplish these ends of our being. 

Morality, then, lies not only in knowing its laws, rules, 
and precepts, but particularly in conforming to them. 
In the proportion in which these rules and precepts are 
known to us, and observed by us, we shall conform to 
the object of our being as discernible in nature; and 
in the proportion in which we are uninstructed in these 
laws and precepts, or disobedient to them, we shall fall 
short of obtaining the good of which we are capable of 
promoting our true and best interest. 

But in what manner does nature urge and command 
us to seek our true and best interest and preservation? 

By two powerful and involuntary sensations which 
she has attached as two guides or guardian powers to 
all our actions; the one, the sensation of pain, by which 
she informs us of and turns us from whatever tends to 
our injury and destruction; the other, the sensation of 
•pleasure, by which she attracts and leads us toward 
everything that tends to our benefit and preservation. 

But sometimes they deceive us in two ways — through 
our ignorance and our passions. They deceive us 
through our ignorance, when we act without knowing 



50 A TKEATISE ON THE 

the effect of objects on our senses; for instance, when 
a man handles nettles without knowing their quality of 
stinging. And they deceive us through our passions 
when, though we are acquainted with the hurtful action 
of objects, we notwithstanding give way to the violence 
of our desires and appetites ; for example, when a man 
knows that wine inebriates, drinks nevertheless to ex- 
cess. 

Now what results from these facts? The result is, 
that the ignorance in which we enter the world, and the 
inordinate appetites to which we give ourselves up, are 
opposed to our best interest and preservation ; that, in 
consequence, the instruction of our minds, and the mod- 
eration of our passions are two obligations, or two laws 
immediately derived from the first law of preservation. 

Yes, ignorance and willful disobedience are the causes 
of nearly all the immorality, suffering, and crime among 
men ; hence the vast importance of teaching our chil- 
dren to know something of themselves — something 
more than is taught in our fashionable schools. 

But all those who are well instructed in the moral law, 
in mental science, are favored with a monitor under the 
name of conscience, which seldom fails in that case to 
perform the duties of its office ; yet this " conscience " is 
mostly a thing of education, and operates well or ill, 
usefully or mischievously, according to the character 
of the mind in which it resides ; hence it is but a fal- 
lacious and precarious guide. 

As above stated, morality consists not only in know- 
ing its laws and precepts, but more particularly in the 
practice of them; therefore, all men in every depart- 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 51 

ment of business should be governed by true moral 
principles. All civil officers should move firmly for- 
ward in the discharge of their sacred duties, adopting 
the law, justice, and equality as their only rule of action, 
knowing not their own private interest nor one man or 
district above another. 

They should never purloin or use public funds for 
private purposes, to secure friends, " to sell calico ;" nor 
give aid or countenance in forwarding clandestine and 
illicit schemes gotten up by unholy factions. 

All merchants, druggists, grocers, etc., should deal 
fairly and equally with their patrons, giving good 
weights and measures, never offering for sale any dam- 
aged goods or other articles, only at reduced prices ; for 
if they purchase damaged goods or other property, the fault 
is their own, hence their customers should not be swindled 
on that account. And because, also, the moral law 
presumes that all traders know their business, and con- 
sequently holds them guilty of fraud for all its vio- 
lations. 

All mechanics should do their work honestly and 
faithfully, receiving no more than a fair consideration 
for the same, and never allowing work and jobs badly 
executed to go out of their shops only as such and at 
reduced prices ; for the moral law presumes that they, 
too, understand their business, and therefore should not 
swindle their customers. 

All farmers should deal honestly in the sale of their 
produce and stock, never offering in market any dam- 
aged or unwholesome meats, breadstuff®, or other arti- 
cles ; nor sell a horse or milch cow without giving the 



52 A TREATISE ON THE 

purchaser all their bad qualities as well as their good 
ones. Nor should they ask for a horse, cow, or other 
property more than a fair consideration, because all 
they receive above a fair price — above what they them- 
selves consider the true worth — is fraudulently obtained 
and a departure from the moral law. 

But the great majority of farmers, merchants, and 
traders will demur against all this kind of philosophy, 
and excuse themselves by replying that every man's 
eyes must be his own market; that other people do not 
deal with them on such principles, and therefore they 
can not afford to do it. True ; yet all this amounts to 
nothing — mere sophistry ; for, with the same propriety, 
they might say that because other men lie, cheat, and 
steal to defraud them, that they have a moral right to 
do the same. 

Again, no man in any business should ever tell a 
falsehood to effect a sale, a swap, or to avoid paying a 
debt, because in so doing he not only outrages the 
moral law, but debases himself below his race. He 
thereby acknowledges, in silent language, that he is too 
ignorant and onery to make a living without lying — 
without lying. 

All such weak and deluded mortals, of whom we have 
legions, are an annoyance to any community — an en- 
emy, practically, to themselves and to their own best 
interest; but all good and intelligent men will pity 
such, and feel very thankful that they are not also 
mean like them , because they are either the incestuous 
offspring of incompatible alliances or of perverted and 
corrupt education and surroundings. Born, perhaps, of 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 53 

ignorant, rude, and vicious parents, consequently in- 
heriting by entailment more or less of their evil quali- 
ties ; but if not from them, then from remote and like 
ancestry; hence it would be unnatural for them to act 
differently from what they do ; yet, notwithstanding, we 
should chastise them, in mercy, when we must — for 
their reformation and the good of society. 

And we yet have another class, many of whom are 
tip-top gentlemen, but who, nevertheless, seem to think 
so little of themselves and of society, as to be frequently 
seen on the sideways and in public places, chewing 
their quids, puffing a cigar, or swinging a great pipe 
from their teeth, patronizing beer and lemonade sa- 
loons, if nothing worse. 

All this fashionable rudeness is very ingenious and 
demoralizing to any community, because our boys are, 
as they should be, creatures of imitation ; and hence it 
is but natural for them to follow such pernicious exam- 
ples — but natural for them to imitate the better class of 
society. 

It is, then, no wonder that we have so many boys 
who are " men," chewing and smoking the nasty weed, 
drinking beer, ale, lemonade, whisky, etc., etc. ; then it 
is no w r onder that we have so many inebriates, loafers, 
gamblers, robbers, etc. ; nor is there any hopes of much 
reformation in that direction so long as fathers — the re- 
spectable fathers and church members who shape soci- 
ety — continue to hold out to the young and rising gen- 
erations such immoral and seductive examples. 

Now, as the majority of my readers use tobacco in 
some way, and perhaps very many of them consider the 



54 A TREATISE ON THE 

nse and example as rather harmless, and only a matter 
which should concern themselves, I will here, for their 
benefit, quote part of a lecture delivered recently by 
I. C. Jackson, M. D., in Danville, New York : 

" Of all narcotic substances used as condiments or for 
appeticious purposes, tobacco presents the most objec- 
tional features. This poisonous substance is a most 
powerful narcotic. It stupefies the brain, while at the 
same time it depresses the heart's action. Begun to be 
used in early life, it creates such a condition of the cir- 
culation of the blood and of the nervous fluids, as to 
render its subject strongly predisposed to the use of 
alcoholic stimulus. I never knew but one besotted 
drunken man who was not a user of tobacco, though 
I have known a great many who have used tobacco who 
were not drunken men. I never knew a tobacco chewer 
who did not use some form of stimulus. Pledged as 
many tobacco chewers are to total abstinence from alco- 
holic drinks as a beverage, they are shrewd and saga- 
cious in the use of some form of stimulant. For in- 
stance, I have never yet known a tobacco chewer who, 
unless prohibited by a physician, did not casually or 
habitually drink tea ; nor have I ever known one who 
did not use with his food largely and freely the condi- 
mental spices. Some of these are very powerful stimu- 
lants, reacting against the depressing effects of tobacco, 
together with which they create habitual conditional or 
functional states that strongly predispose the subject to 
the use of alcoholic stimulants, which are stronger and 
more effective in the production of reactionary results 
than themselves are. 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 55 

""Where a man uses tobacco and drinks no tea nor cof- 
fee, nor uses any of the exciting spices in his food which 
are common as condiments on our tables, I hold it to be 
almost physically impossible for him not to use alco- 
holic drinks as a beverage. The only alternative against 
their use is the abandonment of tobacco. I believe in 
this ; the more observing and widely experienced phy- 
sicians will concur with me ; because they understand 
that stimulants and narcotics, or exaltants and depressants , 
necessarily antagonize each other. 

" He who constantly depresses his heart's action by the 
use of a poison, like tobacco, will feel that he needs a 
stimulus to overcome that depression. 

"Again, some years ago, it was ascertained by the then 
acting chaplain of the New York State prison at Au- 
burn, that not less than seven-eighths of the convicts 
had committed their crimes when in a state of intoxi- 
cation ; and that three-fourths of that seven-eighths ad- 
mitted that the provoking and most powerful cause of 
their past intemperance was the use of tobacco. 

" They first learned to use it, and under its use to 
drink liquor, and when intoxicated by liquor they com- 
mitted crime." 

Then do not the foregoing illustrations prove most 
conclusively, that our respectable fathers and tip-top 
gentlemen are mostly to blame for all the vice, dissipa- 
tion, and crime in any community ; and do they not 
also prove most clearly that not less than the one-half 
of all our inebriates are produced by the free use of 
tobacco. 

Now having treated this subject much farther than 



56 A TREATISE ON THE 

was anticipated, must come to a close ; but will fain 
hope that my readers will give the above suggestions 
and strictures some little attention ; because if we know 
not those great principles and precepts of the moral 
law, how can we live in obedience to them; how can 
we be uniform and practical, moral or religions men 
unless we know how to be such — unless we know our- 
selves — the great laws of mind, with those agencies and 
influences which underlie, govern, and control all the 
actions and affections of men ? 

If we can, then the ancient Catholics were moral and 
religious men when they were persecuting, condemning, 
and burning Protestants merely for opinion's sake ; 
then the Christians of Europe and North America were 
moral and religious when they were executing by fire, 
the sword, and the gibbet, hundreds of thousands of in- 
nocent women and children for the imaginary crime of 
witchcraft. Now I am among the first to frankly ac- 
knowledge that they were, when committing those out- 
rages, just as honest as the best of us are to-day; but 
that does not in the least palliate their crimes — does not 
satisfy the moral law. 

Men frequently commit great crimes conscientiously, 
such as robbery and murder, and afterward repent and 
ask forgiveness; but that does not return the stolen 
property, nor the life of the murdered man — that does 
not pay the debt of sin, although it is good for indi- 
viduals and for society that they so repent, reform, and 
sin no more. But all our past sins (or wrongs) must be 
atoned for, sooner or later, by the first to the fourth 
generation. For instance, the Americans lived hap- 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 57 

pily and prosperously for many generations while revel- 
ing in the great sin of slavery; and finally millions of 
them repented and asked forgiveness for their past 
crimes ; but the day of retribution had to come. 

Their ship was unsound, the erew mutinous, the 
winds blew, and the angry waves beat hard against 
her — to the bottom she went, carrying down with her 
about six hundred thousand valuable lives and thou- 
sands of millions of treasure. " Truly the way of the 
transgressor is hard." 

Therefore, it is good for us to suffer in due time for 
all our foolish and bad conduct, because every chastise- 
ment we receive for crime — for disobeying laws — makes 
us that much wiser and better; and also cautions our 
neighbors that they may avoid the like mistakes ; and 
because, also, wisdom consists in knowing the law, and vir- 
tue and piety in living in obedience to them — and vice 
versa. 

Consequently, it is impossible for any of us to live 
uniform and practical, moral or religious men a'nd wo- 
men only by knowing and living in obedience to the 
laws of our being and of society. And strange to tell ! 
that more than eighty per cent, of all the adult inhabit- 
ants of the earth are to a great extent morally and 
socially, like little children, w T ho love one another, 
yet when together, as they must be, do not know how to 
treat each other. Hence very soon troubles and con- 
tentions arise — all for the want of the knowledge above 
indicated. 

But still children are unlike and vastly more pious 
than men and women, because they very soon forgive 



58 A TREATISE ON THE 

and love one another as well as ever ; because tlieir inno- 
cent and generous souls have not yet been educated to 
hate and bear malice and vengeance; because their little 
bosoms have not yet become the unclean abode of 
demons. 

And lastly, if we would really esteem and love our- 
selves, and hence promote our own best interest — would 
have our neighbors respect us — would wear an honest 
countenance, and enjoy the rich blessings of a cheerful 
and happy disposition, we must possess wisdom, and 
exercise every day kindness, indulgence, veracity, jus- 
tice, and fair dealing with all men. 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAX. 59 



CHAPTER X. 

OBEDIENCE TO THE LAWS OF NATURE PROMOTES HAPPINESS. 

There is, perhaps, no word in our language more 
commonly used, nor any one less defined or less under- 
stood than the term happiness. It is sometimes taken 
to mean pleasurable sensations derived from the gratifi- 
cation of the appetite ; sometimes it means a peculiar 
state of the mind. Murderers, when they are about to be 
swung from the gallows, are often represented as happy ; 
because they committed such odious crimes they were 
sinners, and supposed themselves bound to perdition. 
But, after they had murdered, repented of their sins, 
and confidently expected to go to heaven ; hence they 
were quite happy. Such are some of the ideas that 
men entertain of happiness. Perhaps it is easier to tell 
what happiness is not, than what it is. The most per- 
fect health can hardly be called happiness, unless one 
has something to do, and takes delight in doing it. 
Health and riches do not, as a general thing, make men 
happy. 

These accidents of being rather excite cravings for 
enjoyment, and lessen benevolence and general friend- 
ship. 

They are means, not ends. A rich man can ride but 
one horse, or sit in but one coach, or eat but one din- 



60 A TREATISE ON THE 

ner, or wear but one suit of garments, or live but in 
one house at a time; and persons of moderate circum- 
stances can do the same. Health, riches, power, and 
distinction do not make happiness, for distinction is 
troublesome — it has more pains than pleasures. It is 
jealous, envious, and distrustful. Power does not make 
men happy, for it demands the most busy watchfulness 
to keep it. Riches are the means of enabling men to 
live in elegance and luxury, and even, as is very com- 
mon, in voluptuous enjoyment. But this is no way to 
be happy, for the appetite soon becomes satiated. The 
stomach wears out, and the senses are palled — diseases 
come. The body may be sorely racked on a velvet 
couch as well as on a straw bed. 

Is there, then, any such thing as happiness ? There 
must be such a thing, or the laws of nature, which 
provide for physical, intellectual, and moral being, are 
false and deceitful, and the gift of reason is a fable. If 
there be such a thing as happiness, it will be found in 
that knowledge of and obedience to the laics of nature and 
society j which makes health, longevity, wisdom, and all there 
is of us in this world. 

It will be found in obeying the propensity to action 
to some continuous, useful end ; that is, in pursuing, in 
a reasonable and honorable manner, some one of the 
many vocations in society, which tend to secure one's 
own self-respect, comfort, and peace of mind, and which 
tend, also, to the common good. Such as any honest 
manual or intellectual labor which advances the good 
of society; or the sale and merchandise of all articles 
of trade which the people, for their growth, education, 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 61 

sustenance, and general prosperity in all the depart- 
ments of business really need; and such, and such 
only. Hence the sale of ardent spirits and of all other 
drinks as a beverage — the sale and merchandise of to- 
bacco, opium, etc., as a beverage, in any shape what- 
ever — must be considered really immoral and illegiti- 
mate — as entirely useless and quite pernicious to the 
physical, moral, and religious growth of society. 

What ! who ever heard before of anything wrong in 
keeping genteel shops for the sale, as a beverage, of beer, 
ale, cider, soda-water, lemonade, etc. ? I am sure such 
drinks can do no harm ! The writer must be a fanatic ! 
"But stop, friends, one story is good until another is 
told." These are truly the worst of shops; for such 
(and what are called decent and respectable whisky 
saloons) are the primary departments in the great 
school of drunkenness. 

In just such, thousands of our good men and boys 
first whet up their latent appetites ; when they can not 
get beer, cider, etc., to drink, they will hanker and thirst 
for something stronger (boys must first learn to spell 
before they read). 

It is in such "harmless" shops where men and boys 
first cultivate the pernicious habit of loafing and loung- 
ing — of gabbing all sorts of nonsense and vulgarity, 
and of fooling away their time, money, and brains. 

I tell you what it is, good folks, we want nothing in 
this line what you call decent, harmless, and respectable. 
We are down on all this fashionable decency and re- 
spectability. If we have to be afflicted with anything 
of this sort, give us the very lowest and filthiest sinks 



62 A TREATISE ON THE 

of iniquity — kept only by the most unblushing men. 
For such low and disgraceful shops will only be patron- 
ized by the very lowest characters, who have not in 
their constitutions moral stamina enough to- ever be 
reclaimed. Hence we will still retain about all the use- 
ful and best material in society. Indeed, such miser- 
able sinks will have a moralizing influence on all ob- 
serving, decent, and thinking men and boys in any 
community. 

Yet, strange to tell ! that so very many intelligent and 
respectable men, who are self-bound slaves to one or 
more of these poisonous "luxuries," will excuse them- 
selves by saying, ! I know it is a bad practice and is 
hurting me, but — but — somehow I've got into the habit 
of it, and can't quit it. These same men claim for 
themselves a good share of dignity, love of approba- 
tion, moral courage, and intelligence; yet scoff at the 
science of phrenology, and proudly declare that all men 
could, if they only would, leave off' their bad practices. 
They also claim a great deal of free agency, when, in 
fact, their conduct goes to show that they have very 
little of either. They must not think it strange — must 
not look about for miracles — if their own sons should 
drift into the same bad practices, while thej 7 , their self- 
wise and worthy selves, are offering such bad examples 
to them and to the young and rising generations. 
Finally, we may feel assured that if we so live as to be 
healthy ; so use our time as to be reasonably busy to 
some good purpose, and so conduct ourselves as to be 
justly entitled to our own approbation; so cultivate 
and shape our minds as to ttust in ourselves — to think 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 63 

for ourselves — to understand ourselves, those laws, rela- 
tions, and influences which control all our affections 
and actions; to see things on their right sides and 
from the proper stand-points; to extract good, present 
or future, from all circumstances; and hence to exercise 
charity and indulgence for the misgivings, opinions, 
and prejudices of others, we will be respectable, pros- 
perous, cheerful, and happy. Then why should you 
not, in order to be a man, and to feel like a free man — 
to enjoy through life your full measure of happiness, 
and finally to render to your Creator a good account of 
your past stewardship — 

TRUST IN YOURSELF. 

11 You might be a happy elf, 
If you could but trust yourself: 

1. " Find the wisdom to provide — 

Goodness of your own to guide. 
You 've within you all the light, 
Needful in the darkest night ; 

2. " Learn that wisdom here is wealth, 

And you'll be a happy elf. 
And in sickness and in health, 
Poor or rich may trust yourself; 

3. "And in fear, as well as grief, 

You will find your own relief. 

If you want your soul quite clean, 

Do no wrong, and nothing mean ; 



64 A TREATISE ON THE 

4. " All the love required of you, 

Is enough to keep you true. 
True to good — to just behavior — 
To yourself— to your neighbor ; 

5. " Then in living, and in dying, 

You'll be happy, death defying.' , 

I will now make some further remarks in regard to 
the sources of human happiness, and the conditions 
requisite for maintaining it. I quote from Dr. Combe's 
" Constitution of Man :" 

" The first and most obvious circumstance which at- 
tracts attention is, that all enjoyments must necessarily 
arise from activity of the various systems of which 
the human constitution is composed. The bones, 
nerves, muscles, digestive and respiratory organs fur- 
nish pleasing sensations, directly or indirectly, when 
exercised in conformity with their nature, and the ex- 
ternal senses, and internal faculties, when excited, sup- 
ply the whole remaining perceptions and emotions, 
which, when combined, constitute life and rational ex- 
istence. If these w^ere habitually buried in sleep, or 
constitutionally inactive, life, to all purposes of- enjoy- 
ment, might as well be extinct. Existence would be 
reduced to mere vegetation, without consciousness. 

" If, then, wisdom and benevolence have been employed 
in constituting man, we may expect the arrangements 
of creation, in regard to time, to be calculated, as a 
leading object, to excite his various powers, corporeal 
and mental, to activity. This accordingly appears to 
me to be the case; and the fact may be illustrated by a 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 65 

few examples. A certain portion of nervous and mus- 
cular energy is infused by nature into the human body 
every twenty-four hours, which it is delightful to ex- 
pend; and to provide for its expenditure, the stomach 
has been constituted so as to require regular supplies of 
food, which can be obtained only by nervous and mus- 
cular exertion. The body has been created destitute of 
covering, yet standing in need of protection from the 
elements; and nature has been so constituted that 
raiment can be easily provided by moderate exercise of 
the mental and corporeal powers. It is delightful to 
repair exhausted nervous and muscular energy by 
wholesome aliment; and the digestive organs have 
been so constituted as to perform their functions by 
successive stages, and to afford us frequent opportunity 
of enjoying the pleasures of eating. 

"In these arrangements the design of supporting the 
various systems of the body in activity, for the enjoy- 
ment of the individual, is abundantly obvious. 

"Now directing our attention to the mind, we discover 
that individuality and the other perceptive faculties 
desire, as their means of enjoyment, to know existence, 
and to become acquainted with external objects; while 
the reflecting faculties desire to know the nature, de- 
pendencies, and relations of all objects and beings. 
4 There is something,' says an eloquent writer, ' posi- 
tively agreeable to all men, to all, at least, whose nature 
is not most groveling and base, in gaining knowledge 
for its own sake. When you see anything for the first 
time, you at once derive some gratification from the 
sight being new ; your attention is awakened, and you 



66 A TREATISE ON THE 

desire to know more about it. If it is a piece of work- 
manship, as an instrument, a machine of any kind, you 
wish to know how it is made, how it works, and what 
use it is of. If it is an animal, you desire to know where 
it comes from, how it lives, what are its dispositions, 
and generally its nature and habits. This desire is felt, 
too, without at all considering that the machine or the 
animal may ever be of the least use to yourself practi- 
cally, for, in all probability, you may never see them 
again. But you feel a curiosity to learn all about them, 
because they are new and unknown to you. You accord- 
ingly make inquiries; you feel a gratification in getting 
answers to your questions — that is, in receiving informa- 
tion, and in knowing more — in being better informed 
than you were before. If ever you happen again to see 
the same instrument or animal, you find it agreeable to 
recollect having seen it before, and to think that you 
know something about it. If you see another instru- 
ment or animal, in some respects like, but differing in 
other particulars, you find it pleasing to compare them 
together, and to note in what they agree, and in what 
they differ. Now, all this kind of gratification is of a 
pure and disinterested nature, and has no reference to 
any of the common purposes of life ; yet is is a pleas- 
ure — an enjoyment. You are nothing the richer for it; 
you do not gratify your palate, or any other bodily ap- 
petite ; and yet it is so pleasing that you would give 
something out of your pocket to obtain it, and would 
forego some bodily enjoyment for its sake. The pleas- 
ure derived from science is exactly of the like nature, 
or, rather, it is the very same/ This is a correct and 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 67 

forcible exposition of the pleasures attending the active 
exercise of our intellectual faculties; but to reap happi- 
ness in the greatest quantity and maintain it most per- 
manently, the faculties must be gratified harmoniously. 
In other words, if among the various powers, the su- 
premacy belongs to the moral sentiments, then the aim 
of our habitual conduct must be the attainment of ob- 
jects suited to gratify them. For example, in pursuing 
wealth or fame, as the leading objects of existence, full 
gratification is not afforded to benevolence, venera- 
tion, and conscientiousness, and consequently complete 
satisfaction can not be enjoyed; whereas, by seeking 
knowledge, and dedicating life to the welfare of man- 
kind and obedience to the laws of our Creator, in our 
several vocations, these faculties will be gratified, and 
wealth, fame, health, and other advantages will flow in 
their train, so that the whole mind will rejoice, and its 
delight will remain permanent. 

"Again, to place human happiness on a secure basis, 
the laws of external creation themselves must accord 
with the dictates of the moral sentiments, and intellect 
must be fitted to discover the nature and relations of 
both, and to direct the conduct in harmony with them. 

" Much has been written about the extent of human 
ignorance; but we should discriminate between abso- 
lute incapacity to know, and mere want of information 
arising from not having used this capacity to its full ex- 
tent. In regard to the first, or our capacity to know, it 
appears probable that we shall never know the essence, 
beginning, or end of things; because these are points 
which we have no faculties calculated to discover. But 



68 A TREATISE ON THE 

the same Creator who made the external world consti- 
tuted our faculties, and if we have sufficient data for in- 
ferring that his intention is that we shall enjoy existence 
here T^aile living, and if it be true that we can be 
happy here only by being conversant with those natu- 
ral laws which, when observed, are pre-arranged to 
contribute to our enjoyment, and which when violated 
visit us with appropriate suffering, we may safely con- 
clude that our mental capacities are wisely adapted to 
the attainment of* these objects, whenever we shall do 
our own duty in bringing them to their proper condi- 
tion of perfection, and in applying them in the best 
manner. 

" Now, if the intention of our Creator be that we should 
enjoy existence while in this world, then He knew what 
was necessary to enable us to do so, and He will not be 
found to have failed in conferring on us powers fitted to 
accomplish His design, provided we do our duty in de- 
veloping and applying them. 

" The great motive to exertion is the conviction that 
increased knowledge will furnish us with increased 
means of happiness and well-doing, and with new 
proofs of benevolence and wisdom in the great Archi- 
tect of the Universe." 

" Then ye fathers, pray do your part, 

And teach your children right to know ; 
"When they 're old they '11 not depart, 
If trained the way they ought to go. 

" Your child was given you to rear, 
In ways of honesty and truth ) 
But ah ! too plainly doth appear 
The sheer neglecting of the youth." 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 69 



CHAPTER XL 

LIBERALITY OF SENTIMENT — CHEERFULNESS — HAPPINESS AND 

MISERY. 

So great is the weakness of human nature, and such 
is the force of prejudice, that there are men who are 
liberal in some things and not in others. Where the 
passions are strongly excited, where the prejudices and 
partialities are great, men the most liberal in other re- 
spects, suffer themselves to be led away without exam- 
ination, and from the implicit faith which they attach 
to certain opinions, think themselves justified in repro- 
bating all those who differ from them, and, contrary to 
the mildness of their nature, use a degree of severity 
when they speak of such differences, which would seem 
to indicate a great want of liberality and cool reflection. 
The good effects of liberal sentiments can never be 
sufficiently felt and understood till they are contrasted 
with those of an opposite quality, for such is the con- 
stitution both of the natural and moral world, that 
virtue and beauty derive their luster from their opposites. 

Illiberality is generally connected with the worst of 
our passions, and he whose mind is engrossed by any 
of these, has no consideration or compassion for the 
feelings, opinions, or the comforts of those who surround 
him. Ambition, envy, pride, malice, hatred, jealousy, 
revenge, and avarice are passions which endure no 



70 A TREATISE ON THE 

rivals ; everything must yield to their gratification, or 
be sacrificed to their power ; the gentle voice of moder- 
ation and reason is never heard in their presence ; a 
benevolent feeling for the wants, ignorance, and desires 
of other people is never experienced for a moment, and 
he who dares in any instance to oppose their power 
will feel, whether he deserves it or not, the violence 
with which they bear down all before them, right or 
wrong. Whereas, liberality stops to examine the true 
state of things, and mildly interprets the motives of others ; 
but illiberality never deigns to reflect any further than 
that such and such things are contrary to her opinion 
or interest, 

Illiberality is a lesser sort of tyranny, for the illiberal 
man wishes all people to think as he does, even in 
trifles, and where he has the power will compel them to 
do so. If he is a father, will esteem his children only 
as they accord with his own sentiments or cease to op- 
pose them ; he will pay no attention to their feelings, 
pleasures, or sentiments, if they differ from his own, 
and will estimate all their merit by its conformity to his 
own standard. 

Similarity of opinion is often mistaken for liberality 
of sentiment, and we are apt to conclude that they who 
think as we do, think liberally ; yet this mistake fre- 
quently does harm, for it deceives us with the idea of 
acting with propriety while we are doing exactly the 
reverse. 

The dissenter thinks every churchman must be illib- 
eral, while those of his own persuasion he considers as 
men of enlarged sentiments, and vice versa. Liberality, 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 71 

however, does not consist in a man's own opinions, but in 
the tenderness and respect which he shows to those who 
differ from him ; it is not what we think or believe, but 
what we think of others, that makes us deserve the name 
of liberal; for though freedom from prejudice is one 
part of liberality, yet to respect the prejudices of others 
is a greater, and it is certainly that part which mostly con- 
tributes to the peace, comfort, and pleasure of society. 
We are apt, by a very common mistake, to confound 
indifference with liberality, and a man who has no 
opinions of his own is often said to be liberal to others — 
a degree of praise to which he has properly no claim, 
for the most liberal men are generally the most tena- 
cious and best eenvinced of their own opinions ; and as 
they feel how much it cost them to arrive at conviction, 
they pardon with more ease the mistakes and misgiv- 
ings of others. 

And, again, this liberality of sentiment, this charity, 
respect, and indulgence for the ignorance, wants, and 
opinions of others, naturally begets in their possessors 
a cheerful, jocose, and happy disposition; and it is the 
part of a good man and a true philosopher to jest and 
be merry as well as to preach; but it is exceedingly 
tedious and unpleasant to see people budging along 
through life ever with a frown on their faces, and a 
sigh on their lips ; they become pestilential, and one is 
apt to catch the malady by contact. Such people do n't 
realize that there is any sunny side to this life of ours; 
a smile seems to them to be sadly out of place on a 
companion's face, and a hearty laugh downright blas- 
phemy. pity, pity, what philosophy ! Cheerfulness 



72 A TREATISE ON THE 

is an amulet — a charm to make us permanently contented 
and happy. 

A cheerful man feels well, does well, and loves things 
which are good; while he who is always sad doeth ill in 
the very sorrow he evinceth. Long-faced, sanctimoni- 
ous people are generally avoided, and very justly so, for 
who wishes to partake of their malady ? Whereas, those 
who possess bouyant spirits, and hence look on the 
sunny side of life, are ever courted for the genial emo- 
tions they diffuse about them. 

He who administers medicine to the sad heart, in the 
shape of wit and humor, is most assuredly a good 
Samaritan, for a cheerful face is nearly as good for an 
invalid as healthy weather. To make a sick man think 
he is dying, all that is necessary is to look half-dead 
yourself! Open unrestrained merriment is a safety- 
valve to the heart and disposition, because it is a fact 
beyond dispute that mirth is as innate in the mind as 
any other quality that nature has planted there ; it only 
wants civilization, and the more we cultivate it the more 
faithful and useful it becomes. 

Mirror-like, the world reflects back to us the picture 
which we present to its surface ; and a cheerful heart 
paints the world as it sees it, like a sunny landscape, 
while the morbid mind depicts it like a sterile wilder- 
ness ; and thus, chameleon-like, life takes its hue of light 
or shade from the soul on which it rests, dark or sunny 
as the case may be. 

David Hume used to say that a habit of looking 
on the best side of every event is better than a thou- 
sand pounds a year. Bishop Hall quaintly remarks, 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 73 

" For every bad there might be a worse, and when a 
man breaks his leg, let him be thankful it was not his 
neck.'* 

This is the true spirit of submission and resignation — 
one of the most beautiful and useful traits that can 
possess the human heart — a strong indication of a manly, 
noble, and well-cultivated mind. Then resolve to see 
this world of ours — this beautiful and bountiful world — 
on its sunny side, and you have about half won the 
battle of life at the outset. 

For cheerfulness and happiness consist only in har- 
mony of the body and mind with nature and society; 
they are the result of a healthy and well-working sys- 
tem of organization, combined with accordant actions 
and reactions from nature and society to the percep- 
tions and reminiscences of the brain — the definition 
leads to its means. Healthy action can result only from 
temperance in eating and drinking, regularity of hab- 
its, cleanliness of person, exercise to promote the circu- 
lations, and excitement to exercise. Accordance with 
nature will result of course, and may be improved by 
its study ; while accordance with society will arise from 
being truthful, just, sympathizing, benevolent, unosten- 
tatious, and useful. Self-satisfaction will result from 
such a state of personal and external harmony, and all 
the perceptions of happiness be enjoyed of which hu- 
manity is susceptible. 

Misery is the result of an unhealthy and ill-working 
system of organization, or of discordant actions and 
reactions between nature and society and the individ- 



74 A TREATISE ON THE 

ual ; it is the body and mind in a state of discord with 
nature and society. 

"When nature (or entailment) is not at fault, the bodily 
discordants are occasioned by intemperance, irregularity, 
excess beyond the powers of nature, ignorance of the 
animal economy, personal filthiness, and slothful habits. 
Those of the mind display themselves in malignant 
temper, in inordinate selfishness, in want of time to 
exert the charities of life toward others ; and the con- 
sequences are self-reprobation, discontentedness, hypoc- 
risy, meanness, hating, and being hated. 

It is difficult to be truly happy and to say to ourselves 
that we are so, because all the virtues and exalted wis- 
dom are necessary to the fruition of complete happi- 
ness, and a single vice or error alloys the whole. False 
estimates and incongruous expectations mar the happi- 
ness of many upon whom nature and society have con- 
ferred their apparent means of full enjoyment; while 
acute feelings, warmth of temper, and high prejudices 
and partialities deprive others of the urbanity of man- 
ners and equanimity of temper, which promote cheerful- 
ness and reconcile man to man. 

The mischievous error of the world in ignoring moral 
honesty, in assigning virtue to success, and crime to 
misfortune, improperly substitutes a heart-rending so- 
licitude about the world's opinion, in place of the sat- 
isfaction of intending well, and having with integrity 
done our best. The envy of the unworthy, who think 
others more happy than they know themselves to be, 
begets slanders, backbiting, and malignant whispers; 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 75 

and to surmount these, calls for a degree of patience and 
vigor of understanding not possessed by all. 

Therefore, it appears obvious from the foregoing illus- 
tration that our happiness and misery are to a very 
great extent, placed in our own hands ; that we are the 
arbiters of our own fate, and that — 

THE WORLD IS WHAT WE MAKE IT. 

" Oh ! call not this a vale of tears, 

A world of gloom and sorrow ; 
One-half the grief that o'er us comes, 

From self we often borrow. 
The earth is beautiful and good ; 

How long will men mistake it? 
The folly is within ourselves ; 

The world is what we make it. 

11 Did we but strive to make 'the best 

Of troubles that befall us, 
Instead of meeting cares half-way, 

They would not so appall us. 
Earth has a spell for loving hearts ; 

"Why should we seek to break it ? 
Let's scatter flowers instead of thorns— 

The world is what we make it. 

" If truth and love and gentle words 

We took the pains to nourish, 
The seeds of discontent would die, 

And peace and comfort flourish. 
Oh ! has not each some kindly thought ? 

Then let's at once awake it, 
Believing that, for good or ill, 

The world is what we make it." 



76 A TREATISE ON THE 



LOVE IS A BIRD OF SUMMER SKIES. 

" There is a solace sweet and dear, 
Within this world of woe and fear — 
It is when woman's soothing word 
In sympathy with man's is heard. 

" There is a joy most thrilling sweet, 
"When lips with lips impassioned meet; 
When man with woman's love is blessed, 
And hearts to hearts are fondly pressed. 

" Her lovely voice, that magic power, 
Can cheer the pilgrim's lonely hour; 
So softly sweet its soothing lay, 
Oh I it drives dull cares far away." 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 77 



PAET II. 



AN ESSAY ON MAN, 



UNDER FIFTEEN CAPTIONS. 



CHAPTER I. 

HIS MIND AND SENSES — RESULT OF ORGANIZATION. 

"Know then thyself, presume not God to scan; 
The greatest study of mankind is man." 

It lias been truly said that "the greatest study of 
mankind is man." Indeed, throughout all human soci- 
ety there is not furnished a theme so grand, so vastly 
important, nor yet any one so much neglected. For 
the reading public as a general thing take very little in- 
terest in any moral or philosophical subjects, particu- 
larly such as pertain to the great science of man — to 
the improvement of their own race. Hence the writer 
is well aware that he has undertaken an arduous and 



78 A TKEATISE ON THE 

fruitless task, and might as well, perhaps, amuse him- 
self by throwing pebbles at the moon. 

Yes, the study of man is a very important subject, 
and to investigate it properly, we must take reason, ex- 
perience, and common sense for our guide, otherwise 
we may be led astray by conflicting opinions, and 
thereby deceive ourselves and others. 

"When I consider the intellectual character of man, I 
am struck with the fact that his mind and body have an 
intimate and necessary connection; for whatever the 
mind may be, and in whatever way it is connected with 
its material dwelling-place, one thing seems to be cer- 
tain — it does not display its powers until it has been 
acted upon by the senses. 

This fact leads to the belief of the materiality of the 
mind, and has been the subject of many able, interest- 
ing, and instructive discussions. 

It is clear that the physical and mental action of one 
human being is not known to any other only by and 
through the senses. 

These truths force on us the necessity of considering 
the action of the senses in connection with, and insep- 
arably from, what is known of the qualities of the 
mind. 

The human mind has been the subject of many 
learned works. These have been given to the world at 
different periods. Each successive author has had the 
opportunity of studying the theories of his predecessors, 
and of adopting, modifying, disproving, or rejecting 
them, and of attempting to establish his own. I will 
not undertake to compare the different systems, if the 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 79 

ability to do so could be assumed, nor to say which of 
them should be received, nor which should be rejected; 
but it is obvious that all those written prior to the dis- 
covery of the true laws of mind, by Gaul and Spursheim, 
must have been very imperfect, for how could men 
write correctly on mental science when measurably ig- 
norant of the fundamental laws of mind, as set forth by 
the great science of phrenology. 

It is merely proposed, as sufficient for the present ob- 
ject, to pass a few moments in the examination of in- 
tellectual acts as the simplest and easiest, and perhaps 
the most satisfactory mode of instruction. 

No one knows how his earliest steps in the acquire- 
ment of knowledge were taken; but he knows what 
the fact is with his juniors, and he infers truly that his 
own course must have been similar. It is thus known 
to every one that in earliest infancy the human being is 
of all animals the most helpless ; that months elapse be- 
fore there is any apparent sensation but that which 
arises from the want of food or a sense of suffering. 
The eye and the ear are for a long time insensible, and 
when age enough is obtained to put their organs to use, 
they have everything apparently to learn. The dis- 
crimination between different sounds, and knowledge 
of figure, magnitude, color and distance of external ob- 
jects, are very slowly obtained, and only then by ex- 
periments often repeated. Less is known of the ac- 
quirements of the other senses, excepting that the sense 
of feeling appears to be always on the alert, and its dis- 
agreeable effects are frequently manifested. After some 
few years, all the senses appear to have undergone the 



80 A TREATISE ON THE 

discipline of experience to the effect of answering the 
common purposes of life. What the senses have at- 
tained to by experience must depend, of course, on the 
sort of experience, or on the employment in which they 
have been engaged. The senses of a number of young 
persons who are equally gifted by nature in this re- 
spect will acquire different habits, according to the ac- 
cidental circumstances in which they are placed. Chil- 
dren brought up in a city, those who have been only in 
a small village, those who have been regularly at school, 
and those who have been employed in agriculture, will 
have their senses very differently disciplined. If each 
of these were brought together, and acted upon at the 
same time by the same causes, each class would be dif- 
ferently affected, and the individuals of the same class 
would be affected in different degrees. The senses, 
therefore, may be said to be subjects of instruction by 
experience from early infancy. The only proposition 
which it is necessary to establish is, that the senses are 
subjects of discipline and of habit in every person, 
whatever his vocation in life may be. Another propo- 
sition which is self-evident is, that all knowledge of ex- 
ternal objects and substances must be obtained through 
the senses. Those who are blind from birth can not 
have any knowledge of forms, of comparative distances, 
except the imperfect knowledge which the other senses 
give ; and they must be entirely ignorant of color and 
of all other acquirements to which the use of the eye is 
indispensable. The deaf from birth must be entirely 
ignorant of all knowledge of sounds — the senses are 
therefore necessary avenues of knowledge to the mind. 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 81 

It must be admitted, therefore, that the action of the 
senses is indispensable to the development of the mind ; 
and from this well-known fact the materialists argue 
that the mind is not independent of itself, but the re- 
sult of material organization. It is solely through the 
operation of physical machinery that mental effects are 
brought about ; for each act of the mind requires for its 
production the resolution of a portion of the material 
brain. "Where there is no brain, there is no manifesta- 
tion of mind ; though we often hear the remark made 
that mind is something entirely independent of organ- 
ization. But we might as well say that music is inde- 
pendent of the instrument, or that we can have the fra- 
grance of the rose without the rose itself. Nothing 
seems plainer to me than that mind is the result of or- 
ganization, for without the latter there are no senses by 
which knowledge is communicated to the mind. 

There is no intelligence where there is no sense, and 
no sense where there are no organs of sense. 

The mind is in a good or bad condition according as 
the brain is healthy or diseased, and now if mind does 
not depend on organization, why should the derange- 
ment of the latter have such an effect on the former as 
we often witness? Why should a blow on the head 
dethrone the reason for a longer or shorter time, if the 
mind be independent of the body ? We ought not to 
see this result, and certainly should not, if the mind 
were a distinct entity, separate and apart from the or- 
ganization. In that case, it would no more be affected 
by a material agency, or wound, than Mr. Brady would 
be injured bodily by a blow given Mr. Tracy. 



82 A TREATISE ON THE 

But this is not the fact, for one mind can not be in- 
jured by what may happen to another, and we have yet 
to see the mind and body united where the derange- 
ment of the latter did not affect the former. 

Until the pretended philosophers can produce a case 
to the contrary, they do not, as it appears to me, make 
much progress in proving the existence of mind inde- 
pendent of the body. When the brain is distempered, 
or malformed, the mind is seriously impaired or idiotic. 
Did any one ever know of a diseased brain and a 
healthy mind in the same person ? This intimate con- 
nection and dependence between the mind and body, 
necessarily subjects both to one law. This is in accord- 
ance with the economy displayed everywhere in nature ; 
for no new element is ever introduced to perform a 
function which can be accomplished by the extension 
or further development of an existing agent. 

But a great many intelligent men suppose that the 
mind is a perfect independent being, and that it is so 
from the commencement of life. They seem to think 
that it is not inconsistent with some analogies in nature; 
that the mind or soul is originally given to every human 
being, and that the action of life developes and makes it 
whatever it becomes. But it is more reasonable, I 
think, to suppose that the mind expands, and is pro- 
gressive in conformity to the action made on it first 
through the senses, and then by its own operation. 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 83 



CHAPTER II. 

HIS NATURE IS EVER THE SAME. 

Turn to the " proverbs " of the most ancient nations and 
to their moral laws ; to the Hindu Yedas, to the Mosaic 
code, the Persian Shaster, the codes of Menn and Con- 
fucius, the Proverbs of Solomon, and those of nations 
two thousand years before his time ; read ours to-day, 
and those of any extant people, and tell me if they are 
not still the same — if man's character to-day here, and 
everywhere, is not a perfect impression from those 
stereotyped plates representing his moral features in all 
past ages ? 

Point out a single crime in their catalogues that has 
been redeemed from the list, or one that can not be 
shown in Christian statutes to-day ? Read the histories, 
the poems, and the ancient plays of Persia, Hindostan, 
and all other countries, and you will find that exactly 
the same round of characters formed every social group 
as now, with the same passions and propensities ; that 
crimes and human infirmities existed in the same pro- 
portion as now. 

After all the educating, lecturing, and preaching that 
has been done to change man, here he is pretty much as 
these early records paint him — the same complaining, 



84 A TREATISE ON THE 

faithless, quarreling, selfish, jealous, bigoted infidel that 
he was then — proving conclusively that the same physi- 
cal circumstances have and ever will produce the same 
moral effects by an inflexible law. There never has 
been — there is not now — on earth a society sufficiently 
large that is not composed of the same round of char- 
acters, of good and evil intermixed in the same relative 
proportions — the rich and the poor, the virtuous and 
the frail, the fanatic and the hypocrite, the flirt and the 
gossip, the thrifty and the unthrifty, fast boys, loafing 
husbands, thefts, riots, suicides, brawls, murders, bur- 
glaries, etc. There never was a man who did not re- 
volve, with some obliquity of the axis, around some ruling 
passion. The rose has always had its thorns, the dia- 
mond its specks, and the best man his failings; and the 
records of all countries confirm our observation, that 
every variety of legal offense bears a constant ratio to 
the number of inhabitants in the same places. 

JSTow if this order of things has always existed, or for 
thousands of years, under every form of religion and 
government, who can resist the conviction of its neces- 
sity and its immutability ? 

Seeing, then, that man's character is persistent, and 
that the current of events that leads to marked epochs 
is the same among all people, how easy is the art of 
prophecy ! Only leave your dates blank or ambiguous, 
and you can scarcely prophesy a possible event that 
will not be sure of fulfillment some time or other, espe- 
cially if any one is interested in making out its accom- 
plishment. 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 85 

Yes, man has ever been in all ages, in every country, 
and under every form of government and religion, a 
faithless, selfish, bigoted, and persecuting infidel or 
hypocrite; but such character did not proceed from hi3 
primitive or God-given nature, because his mental, 
moral, and religious -attributes are capable, under proper 
discipline, of a high state of civilization and refinement, 
much higher than has ever yet been attained. 

Indeed, the time will surely come when our race 
will be elevated as far above what it now is as we are 
above the most ignorant and rude savages; when strife, 
persecutions, murders, and wars will almost entirely 
cease, and when peace, friendship, and love will greatly 
abound. We are faithless, selfish, and deceitful hypo- 
crites merely because we have been for untold ages 
taught to be such — because we are ignorant of our- 
selves and of our race ; not knowing the kind of beings 
with whom we had to deal ; ignorant of the laws which 
controlled our own minds, and consequently our affec- 
tions and actions. 

Nor could qjiything better have been reasonably ex- 
pected, since our teachers, preachers, and legislators 
have ever been (and are now) so ignorant of natural 
laws, of themselves, and of their pupils, auditors, and 
constituents. So ignorant now, that just before and 
during the late rebellion, our highly educated and hon- 
est but ignorant ministers did, by their silly partisan 
and unholy preaching, demoralize or completely destroy 
thousands of well-doing and respectable churches. 
Hence such " order of things " was a natural neces- 



86 A TREATISE ON THE 

sity or result of ignorance— a " necessity " only as a 
promotive or incentive to improvement, to progress. 
Then- 
Why blame the thistles for having grown. 
After we ourselves the seeds had sown. 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 87 



CHAPTER III. 

HIS POSITIVE AND SELF-KNOWLEDGE. 

Nothing but positive knowledge obtained through 
the medium of the five physical senses, and supported 
by tangible evidences found inside the regular order of 
nature, should ever be taught to the young and rising 
generations ; for the inculcating of mere opinions is bur- 
dening the next age with the errors, superstitions, and 
delusions of the present, and impedes much the progress 
of intellect. We should teach the youth in our schools 
every kind of useful knowledge, all the primary and 
higher branches of a useful English education, and post- 
pone all preparations for future life to their proper 
time, proper places, and preceptors ; and leave the ap- 
plication of the same until future conditions and cir- 
cumstances shall dictate the convenience and necessity 
of acting or forming opinions. By this time their 
minds will be pretty well matured, their investigating 
and discriminating faculties developed, enabling them 
thereby to analyze and compare ideas, and finally to se- 
lect more properly such professions, trades, etc., as may 
best suit their peculiar tastes, conditions, and consti- 
tutional adaptations. Advising, influencing, and, as is 
too often the case, indirectly coercing persons, young 



88 A TREATISE ON THE 

and old, how to think and act in such and such circum- 
stances, is only declaring what you think is best for 
them in their situation, and is therefore liable to mis- 
lead and ultimately to produce more harm than good. 
The safest way, when asked for advice, is to give all 
the positive knowledge you possess on the subject, then 
leave the individual to judge a's best he can. 

Opinions are so various, contradictory, and change- 
able, depending on incidents, temper, constitution, and 
situation, many of them beyond our control, that they 
ought not to be the subject of dispute and persecution, 
so common among professing people, much less im- 
pressed on the plastic minds of our children during 
their education. 

And another thing which very much retards the 
progress of positive knowledge, is the quality of books 
and other reading matter thrown broadcast over our 
general country, the three-fourths of which is mere 
rubbish, sophistry, trash, tales, fiction, etc., only calcu- 
lated to incumber, debilitate, and demoralize the minds 
of our youth. But this is a fast age, and people must 
think and act only as they have been taught — only ac- 
cording to the styles and fashions of the day — anything 
and everything, right or wrong, for popularity, patron- 
age, etc. No time this for changing opinions, for look- 
ing after moral duties, positive knowledge, etc. 

Yet the change of opinion ought to be proof of more 
accurate information ; but as it is a confession of being 
formerly in the wrong, our false self-esteem is opposed to 
avowing it, and ignorant people attach some weakness 



INTELLECTUAL, SOCIAL, AND MORAL MAN. 89 

and disgrace to those who change their mode of think- 
ing on any subjects. 

Indeed, nothing is more changeable or precarious 
than opinions ; for one who obtains possession of power 
has not the same opinions as when he was subject to 
obey power. 

One who obtains riches does not hold the same opin- 
ions as when he was poor. When a man is sick he 
thinks differently from what he did when in good 
health. A weak man thinks differently from a strong 
man ; a young man from an old man ; a wise man from 
an unwise man, and any and every man who acquires 
more correct information must change his opinions. 
Change circumstances and you change interest, and as 
certainly change opinions. * One may as reasonably 
quarrel with another for not using the same kinds of 
food, for having hair of a different color, a nose longer 
or shorter, as for having an opinion different from his own. 
Yet the arbitrary assumption that all ought to think 
with the strongest party, is the origin of all intolerance 
and persecution. 

Again, many intelligent but deluded men run their 
opinions to great excess, opposing religion as not only 
useless, but injurious to society, such as Voltaire, 
Payne, etc. But I am constrained to differ very much 
with all such extreme men, from the fact that no per- 
son ever yet heard of the existence of civilized society 
in the absence of Bibles and gospel preaching. Indeed, 
without the churches, universal discord and anarchy 
would soon overrun the whole country; and the great 
excess of church influence will as surely bring about, 



90 A TREATISE OK THE 

sooner or later, the same ruinous results, as the early- 
ages have proven to a demonstration. Hence it is ob- 
vious that it is not religion which creates the trouble, 
but the abuse of it. 

As there are opposing forces and warring elements 
throughout all nature, so there are and needs to be in 
society, and everything in nature, morals, and religion 
tends to the great and universal law of equilibrium. 
Therefore, we always need in society a proper propor- 
tion of church people and non-conformists (or out- 
siders) ; the one class being as necessary as the other ; 
the one the life and salvation of the other, for just 
remove all the outsiders, and soon there will be no in- 
siders; and just abolish either of the two great political 
parties, and very soon intolerance and despotism will 
reign supreme. The one is a necessarv check on the 
other. 

For those who oppose us in politics, in religion, or 
upon any other subjects, are, in the end, our best friends 
and benefactors — they are our sentinels on the watch-tower 
while we sleep, and vice versa; for the world exists but by 
conflict, and is only maintained by opposition ; we ever 
find one force pitted against another, and all things 
find their contrarieties to be the foundation of their 
preservation and their perpetuity. 

Then what are the churches, the outsiders, and the 
political parties eternally wrangling and quarreling 
about? 

They are quarreling simply because they do n't know 
any better; because they know so very little of them- 
selves — of the great laws of mind; because they are 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 91 

not sufficiently enlightened and refined; because they 
believe that the mind acts voluntary, and hence that 
people can believe just what they choose in despite of 
their past education and surroundings; because they 
know so little of the moral duties and relations existing 
between man and man, between man and society, and 
between man and his Creator ; because they lack posi- 
tive knowledge which would teach them better than to 
annoy and slander their neighbors merely because they 
are obliged to differ with them in opinion. And with- 
out this practical and positive knowledge, which few 
possess, it is iinpossible for any of us to be uniform and 
practical moral or religious men and women; yet all such 
knowledge is carefully kept out of the schools, out of 
the churches, and out of all books except such as are 
written upon phrenological principles. Indeed, the 
masses of the people seemed determined not to learn 
anything of the great science of mind — determined not. 
to learn those natural laws and principles which underlie 
and control all their actions. 

People can be quite honest, yet fault-finding, perse- 
cuting, selfish, and mean in a thousand ways, as every 
day's experience proves most conclusively ; all for the 
want of a little education in the right direction, an ed- 
ucation in first principles, in men, and in such things, 
duties, and relations as pertain to practical life — all on 
account of their possessing only a superficial and r?- 
stricted education as above indicated, and their conse- 
quent self-inflation, unkindness, and presumption. But 
as a very general thing, what they lack in wisdom is 



92 A TREATISE ON THE 

bountifully made up to them in self-conceit; hence 
feeling secure and self-sufficient, never learn until too 
late, that a 

" Little learning is a dangerous thing, 
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring ; 
For shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, 
But drinking deep will sober us again." 

To illustrate. The ancient Catholics persecuted the 
Protestants, even unto death, by fire and the sword, 
merely for opinion's sake, for only imaginary wrongs. 

In the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, 
the Christians of England, Scotland, France, Germany, 
and North America tried, condemned, and executed by 
fire and the sword, in all, perhaps, half a million of 
unfortunate and innocent mortals, merely for witch- 
craft. And the Christians of the Few England States 
persecuted and tortured, in a cruel manner, the peace- 
able " Quakers," only for a difference of opinion. 

All this savage cruelty was inflicted merely for opin- 
ion's sake — for wrongs which existed only in their ig- 
norant imaginations; because there is no doubt but 
they were all as honest and well meaning as the best of 
us are at this time, and considered themselves not only 
moral but religious men. 

Yet everybody will now admit that they were practi- 
cally not only immoral, but extremely wicked. 

But many honest people will palliate those ancient 
outrages by averring that they were done in the dark 
ages — in the dark ages I must admit; and this is rather 



INTELLECTUAL MOKAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 93 

a dusky age, as the sequel will show. Indeed, but for 
a few noble minds, comparatively speaking, and the 
efficiency of our civil laws, very soon would the dark 
clouds hover around our horizon — soon would our sun, 
too, be eclipsed — soon would scenes of persecution and 
torture take place, such as would astonish the world; 
for the same ignorance, prejudice, and vindictiveness 
prevails at this time to a great degree. For example : 
The political parties all over the United States are 
ready, now and then, to almost destroy each other; and 
have not thousands of honest and good men in the 
Southern States been recently shot down and starved to 
death in cool blood, merely because they honestly dif- 
fered in opinion with the opposite party ? And why do 
we, who boast so much of our moral and religious train- 
ing — we, the modern Puritans of the Northern States — 
give our influence, money, and votes to create state 
laws by which houses — sinks of iniquity — are chartered, 
and ignorant demons licensed to deal out their liquid 
and soul-destroying poisons— licensed to rob, starve, 
and disgrace the mothers and their helpless children — 
to debase and to derange the husbands and fathers that 
they may ultimately rob and slay their fellow-men? 
And what next? Our intelligent courts go to work 
coolly, deliberately, and religiously, and incarcerate 
them in the abodes of misery and degradation, which 
disgrace and ruin them, their innocent and amiable wives 
and children forever ; they go to work and commit upon 
them legalized moral murder — legalized murder. 

For all this mischief the ignorant but honest voters 
are responsible. But I would not have my readers be- 



94 A TREATISE ON THE 

lieve that I am opposed to chastisement for felons and 
assassins, etc. No, indeed; we should always have 
houses of correction and reformation for such evil- 
doers ; organized and conducted in a manner similar to 
our state prisons, but bearing a different name, and 
quite a different character, and where such persons 
could be properly educated, reclaimed, and finally re- 
turned to society; while all such as could not be so 
reclaimed and safely set at liberty should be confined 
during life at labor, but not abused. 

Now this does not gingle like legal, moral, or physi- 
cal murder, but like humanity and true Christianity. 

Are not the churches eternally persecuting each other 
and all "outsiders," particularly the Materialists, Uni- 
versalists, and Spiritualists, and vice versa? This they 
do not through any ill-design or natural meanness, but 
solely on account of their ignorance of moral and men- 
tal science. 

Again, it is known that before and during the late 
rebellion, political excitement was very great, and that, 
in consequence, thousands of prosperous and respect- 
able churches were either entirely broken up or badly 
demoralized — the work, mostly, of Republican preach- 
ers, who, by their silly and uncharitable language, drove 
out, in many instances, nearly all the Democratic ele- 
ment, and vice versa. Now the great majority of these 
ministers were honest and well-meaning and highly edu- 
cated men, but were, notwithstanding, very ignorant of 
human nature — ignorant of those natural laws which 
control and govern the actions and affections of men. 

And again, for more than two centuries, nearly the 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 95 

whole people of the United States had been by their 
suffrages and money propagating the institution of 
slavery, which, notwithstanding it aided very much in 
the early development of the resources of a new and 
fertile country which had been but recently discov- 
ered, peopled and made opulent the barren hills of 
New England, and opened up the rich and miasmatic 
regions of the South, is, after all, an institution incom- 
patible with true moral and religious principles and 
good government — demoralizing and revolutionary in 
its results ; and only for the ignorance, depravity, and 
cupidity of our people, both North and South, would 
have been peaceably abolished fifty or sixty years ago. 
But perhaps its work was not then finished — the day of 
retribution had to come, the people needed education and 
progression; and it seems that customs and institutions 
never give place only when, and after their missions 
are accomplished, they yield to the supreme law which 
determines their utility and their limits. Before that 
fatal period is reached, no opposition can be effectual. 
No conspiracy, no revolt, no violence, can overthrow a 
custom or an institution before the time has come for 
its dissolution. It is maintained by an eternal fiat — by 
an irresistible force against which all human efforts are 
of no avail. 

" During the whole of these proceedings, as above 
written, the ancient clergy, both Catholic and Protest- 
ant, were in possession of revelation as fully and freely 
as they are to day. And in Scotalnd, in particular, the 
reformation had been completed, and the people put in 
possession of the Bible for nearly a century before the 



96 A TREATISE ON THE 

cessation of these prosecutions and executions for 
witchcraft. 5 ' 

And North America has always been blessed with the 
Bible, and with all other lights and advantages neces- 
sary to enlighten, moralize, and refine its inhabitants 
far above all this low slang and persecution merely for 
a difference of opinion, without any regard whatever 
to the moral acts and merits of the individuals — merely 
because we all can not see through the same glasses — 
merely for wrongs such as witchcraft, unbelief in this 
creed or in that, for riding through the air on a 
broomstick, etc., etc. (" In England, thirty thousand 
were put to death for the last offense" — by little Solo- 
mons, of whom ive have to-day legions*). Now all the 
above-named foolishness, troubles, persecutions, and ex- 
ecutions were inflicted merely for the want of a proper 
degree of self-knowledge, which will keep a man calm 
and equal in his temper, and wise and cautious in his 
conduct. It will enable him to make the proper allow- 
ance for the opinions and acts of his fellow-men ; to 
learn his own ignorance and unworthiness, and hence 
to place a higher estimate on all men; to enjoy life 
happily, and thereby avoid many vexations and trou- 
bles. 

In short, most of the misfortunes which men meet 
with may be traced up to and resolved into self-igno- 
rance. Indeed, ignorance is the great and unpardonable 
sin — the primitive cause of nine-tenths of all the trou- 
bles and misfortunes which overtake our race. We 

*Parrington's History. 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 97 

may complain of nature, of bad luck, and of men; but 
the fault, if we carefully examine it, will generally be 
found to be our own. Our rashness and imprudence, 
which arises from self-ignorance, either brings our trou- 
bles on us or increases them. Want of a mind prop- 
erly enlightened and refined will make any affliction 
double; but it is next thing to impossible to fasten any 
affliction on a mind well versed in moral science, on a 
mind truly "philosophically enlightened, on a mind capable 
of extracting good, present or future, from all circum- 
stances. What a long train of difficulties do sometimes 
proceed from only one wrong step in our conduct into 
which our self- ignorance betrayed us; and all the lec- 
tures and sermons delivered from the schools and pul- 
pits in condemnation of vice and crime, ambition, van- 
ity, and folly, will avail as little as reproof to the 
tempest, while laws, habits, example, and education 
draw mankind into the vortex of luxury, dissipation, 
dishonesty, falsehood, superstition, and contention. 

Were mankind but more generally convinced of the 
importance and necessity of such self-knowledge, and 
possessed with a due regard for it ; did they but know 
the true way to attain it; and under a proper sense of 
its excellence, and the fatal effects of self-ignorance, 
did they but make it their business every day to culti- 
vate it, how soon should we find a hanpv alteration in 
the manners and dispositions of men. But the mis- 
chief of it is, men will not think for themselves ; they had 
much sooner other men think for them — sooner believe 
this sophistry or that, merely because other men be- 
lieved it. 



98 A TREATISE ON THE 

But if the great object of social life were to exhibit 
good sense and correct conduct as the only true crite- 
rion of human excellence — if this truth were generally 
understood and acted upon — riches, power, and empty 
fashion would soon lose much of their influence ; and 
men, pursuing nothing but intellectual improvement 
in the skillful use of their undestanding, would advance 
in true science, and consequently in well-doing — 
would live to a good age, and answer the ends and 
purposes for which they were created. 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 99 



CHAPTER IV. 

HIS EDUCATION. 

'Tis education that forms the common mind, 
Just as the twig is bent the tree's inclined. 

What is man without education ? Then as he is a 
gregarious, moral, social, and religious being, and must 
live in society, he should be educated. His intellectual, 
moral, and social faculties should be well developed, 
particularly as his greatest enjoyments are derived from 
the exercise of the moral and social laws. 

How happy they render him when all else is gone, 
and how miserable would he not be, with all'the wealth 
of the world, if denied their rich blessings. Therefore, 
the first object of every family and community should 
be to teach its members the great and all-important les- 
son, " to know thyself," to know the physical, moral, 
and social laws which must ever govern them in all 
they are or ever can be, and which must necessarily 
shape and determine their future destiny, not only as 
individuals but as nations — to know the moral and 
social duties and relations existing between man and 
man, man and society, between man and his Creator; 
then, and not until then, will they ever know their 
neighbors, how to treat them, and how to sympa- 
thize with them ; and not until then will they ever 
cease their extreme proscriptions and persecutions 



100 A TREATISE ON THE 

merely for opinion's sake. But what are we now do- 
ing in that direction? Next thing to nothing. Yet 
our general country is inundated with respectable jour- 
nals which devote their columns to almost all subjects, 
particularly to politics, religion, agriculture, improve- 
ment of stock, etc. But scarcely once in seven years 
do we find an article on the all-important subject of 
man. Poor man, he is not worth looking after ! Nothing 
is said about the elevation of his own race, although, as 
Doctor Combe says, " we take great pains to improve 
our horses, cattle, sheep, and swine ; yea, even our dogs, 
but never once think of the improvement of our own 
race/' And nothing is said about the causes of his 
present physical and mental imbecility and consequent 
mortality, which is so destructive and alarming, sweep- 
ing off, by premature death, multiplied millions, and 
also filling our poor-houses and asylums with other 
millions of debilitated, deaf, blind, and idiotic mortals, 
all the legitimate work of neglected and outraged 
laws. 

Then what means should be employed, what more 
shall we teach to remedy this great failure, to improve 
the condition of the masses, that general intelligence, 
self-reliance, self-respect, liberality, peace and happiness 
might more greatly abound ; that we may lay the ax at the 
root of the tree ; that we may build our moral and social 
edifice on a solid rock, and that we may finally learn 
that great lesson, to know ourselves, and hence to know 
and to love all mankind. 

We should teach in our families, in our schools and 
upon all occasions, first principles, the universal and 



INTELLECTUAL, MOKAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 101 

fundamental laws of our being, and of the external 
world, the imperative duty and necessity of thinking 
for ourselves upon all subjects. The necessity and ca- 
pacity of reasoning from causes to their effects, of anal- 
izing and comparing ideas, thereby separating truth from 
sophistry, and of never allowing ourselves to believe 
any theory, doctrine, or circumstance, until after we 
have found, inside the pale of nature, some tangible 
reasons deduced from common sense, experience and 
sound philosophy. 

"We should also teach in our families, in our schools, 
and upon all possible occasions, the great science of 
physiology in all its bearings, the laws of phrenology, 
of marriage, of entailments, and of the temperaments, 
upon which depends, more than upon all other means, 
the future elevation and salvation of our race. For if 
the crude material, the physical and mental man, be not 
right, the hand of the polisher can never turn out a 
good article ; no, not any more than we can make a 
" Sampson " out of an ordinary man ; not any more 
than we can make a skillful mechanic out of a boy not 
naturally adapted to that business, or a temperate, can- 
did, and honest man out of a boy largely developed for 
intemperance, deception, and dishonesty ; not any more 
than we can make a lamb out of a young lion ; not- 
withstanding education has a "oowerful influence in 
shaping the character of men. 

And without this knowledge, we can never know but 
very little of the all-important science of man, his ca- 
pacity and peculiarities, of his effeminacy, degeneracy, 
and consequent depravity and mortality. Indeed, it is 



102 A TREATISE ON THE 

well demonstrated, and now an admitted fact among 
the learned physiologists, that a great part of our crime 
and imbecility, and consequent mortality, is produced, 
directly or indirectly, from our illegal marriages — by al- 
liances not constitutionally adapted, and which never 
fail to afflict the unfortunate offspring with debility, 
disease, and premature death. 

We should not only educate the mind, but the fingers, 
hands, and body — the whole man ; for the body is the 
instrument upon which the mind plays the tune of 
life ; and if we desire music harmonious and sweet, we 
must have a good instrument and keep it in prime 
order — alive in every nerve, sound in every limb, and 
perfect in every part ; yes, to make the education of our 
children worth much, it should be well mixed with 
physical exercise, with useful labor performed in the 
fields, in the garden, kitchen, and parlor. They should 
go to school awhile, then labor awhile ; they should 
toil and perspire outdoors and indoors, whenever labor is 
needed ; live on plain food, drink cold water, and abhor 
whisky and tobacco. 

They should let the glorious sun shine on them, the 
refreshing winds blow on them, let it rain and freeze on 
them, etc. This is the way, the only way, to make men 
and ivomen, to build up good physical and mental con- 
stitutions, to develop the whole man, to prolong life, 
and to have it useful to themselves and to their country. 

But education as now given to our children, particu- 
larly in towns and cities, is almost useless, a waste of 
money and humanity; for thousands and millions of 
them are kept in the schools from seven until they are 



INTELLECTUAL, MOKAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 103 

twenty-one years old, without being required to soil 
their hands by any useful labor; growing up in effemi- 
nacy (soon to fall) like so many butter-weeds. 

In the meantime, vast numbers of them contract 
ruinous habits of idleness and extravagance, and finally 
leave school with only a. partial book education, ac- 
quired at the expense of health and morals ; conse- 
quently they are ever after too feeble or too idle and ex- 
travagant to make their educations, though ever com- 
plete, available. 

And strange to tell, those baneful results are chiefly 
produced from the foolish and reckless manner in 
which our schools, high and low, are conducted ; the 
educators, great and small, compelling their pupils to 
waste more than the one-half of every term in memor- 
izing and declaiming nonsense, writing and reciting 
essays, preparing for exhibitions, etc., none of which 
(though necessary) should ever be allowed to interrupt 
a school except at the end of a five or six months' term. 

And also requiring their scholars to carry along at 
the same time three and four studies; than which a 
more simple and injurious practice could not be adopted, 
because one study forever interferes with another, from 
the fact it is as impossible for any mind to concentrate 
on more than one study at a time, as it is for a sun-glass 
to converge the rays of the sun on two or more points 
at one and the same time. 

And any school-boy ought to have sense enough to 
know that without steady application and concentration, 
it is impossible to make much progress in any science, 
or even in ordinary business. (But it must not be un- 



104 A TREATISE ON THE 

derstood that I would have scholars closely confined to 
abstract studies from morn till noon, and from noon 
till night; but their minds should be, when necessary, 
relieved by lessons in reading, penmanship, etc.) 

The writer well recollects when this practice was in- 
troduced by Eastern men into the vicinity of Cincin- 
nati (about the year 1825), and it was then called a 
" Yankee trick " to swindle the people. It is yet (with 
the rest) but a " Yankee trick," an intolerable outrage 
on every community. 

Then what can be the reason that so many of our 
pious, respectable, and well-educated professors and 
teachers, not only tolerate, but participate in practices 
or methods of teaching so repugnant to common sense 
and all human experience ? 

Is it because they are after all really ignorant? 
No, that can not be the case. Then there must be 
some other cause ; then there may be some large 
pecuniary interest at the bottom of all this mischief — 
some great organized league gotten up (long since) for 
the ostensible purpose of prolonging the pupilage of 
our children to ten and twelve years, so as to make 
their business sufficiently remunerative to maintain our 
present armies of pedagogues, and for other purposes 
and interests no less nefarious. 

Then, fathers and philanthropists, why not dispense 
with those hot-beds of idleness, vanity, and effeminacy, 
and go to work without delay for your children and 
lor your race ? 

Go to work before it is too late, and snatch the com- 
ing generations from almost total ruin; reconstruct 



INTELLECTUAL. MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAX. 105 

your common and graded schools in a sensible and 
judicious manner, organize manual labor colleges, and 
thereby obviate those demoralizing and destructive con- 
sequences. 

And more especially, fathers, as the mental organi- 
zations of a large majority of your children are such, 
that much book-learning, with the consequent idleness 
and extravagance, will be ruinous to them, from the 
fact they will become debilitated, paralyzed, and demor- 
alized; hence their domestic and financial attributes 
will become very much impaired, thereby rendering 
them measurably useless to themselves and to their 
country — only fit to crowd the sideways and churches ; 
to annoy and swindle the laboring class; to waste what 
they may inherit ; and, lastly, to afflict society with an 
offspring far inferior to themselves. 

But if you really love your children, and wish to 
promote their true and best interest, give them all, if 
possible, a good and practical common-school education, 
well mixed with physical labor, which will qualify them 
for almost any business in society. 

Xow, if any one, two, or more of them should nat- 
urallv " thirst and hunger " for greater proficiency in 
the sciences — should aspire for any of the professions — 
then assist them cautiously, a little now and a little 
then. 

Throw them mostly on their own resources, not neg- 
lecting to administer occasionally the elixir of life (do- 
mestic labor). Cultivate them to self-reliance — to sJ.f- 
reliance. Yes, compel them ultimately to save them- 
selves, which they will surely do if there be in them 



106 A TREATISE ON THE 

much emulation and energy ; but if there he not it will 
be useless to waste much money on them. Then put 
them to work ; put them to some honorable and useful 
labor, and no doubt they will make worthy and respect- 
able citizens ; will fill their mission here on earth ; will 
live out their three-score and ten years ; will glide down 
the gentle stream of life to its terminus, the world the 
better by their having lived in it. 

u A little learning is a dangerous thing, 
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring; 
For shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, 
But drinking deep will sober it again." 

All the above-named laws, sciences, principles, and 
relations are naturally connected together, and should 
be taught in all graded and higher schools to the exclu- 
sion, as a general rule, of the dead languages and of 
the other branches of minor importance, which only 
protract the pupilage of our children, and, in the end, 
compel them to remain ignorant of many of the most 
useful sciences so very necessary in after life. 

But is it not a humiliating and disgraceful fact, that 
many of the above-mentioned laws and sciences, as 
necessary as life itself, are not only ignored, but scoffed 
at in many of our best schools, and by multiplied thou- 
sands of the so-called learned ones, very many of whom 
not only claim the right to lead, but even to shape the 
public mind. 

All such are far behind the present age, and are 
doomed to share the fate of those who persecuted such 
immortal benefactors as Columbus, Harvey, Fulton, and 
the Tuscan astronomer, Galileo, who, in his seventieth 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 107 

year, was forced by the unholy inquisition to retract 
his theory under the penalities of death. 

But it was even then too late, for the divine thought 
had reached the boundless wires of heaven. 

Just so it is with the inspired thoughts of Drs. 
Gall, Spursheim, Combe, and others. It is too late, and 
nothing can stop them until all scoffers are silenced — 
until they shall circumscribe the whole earth, carry 
convictions to all nations, to every school, and to every 
family. 

A man can not be a Christian unless he be strictly 
moral ; to be moral, he must live in obedience to the 
laws of his being and of society; to live in obedience 
to these laws, he must first know them — must under- 
stand those relations, principles, and influences which 
underlie and control all his actions and affections — 
must know himself. 



108 A TREATISE ON THE 



CHAPTER V. 

HIS MOKAL ACCOUNTABILITY. 

This is a very interesting subject, and one on which 
there are various and conflicting opinions; but it will be 
admitted by every one that man is by his physical and 
intellectual qualities very much distinguished from all 
other animals, and that he is much more so by those 
which we call the moral. He is perhaps the only animal 
who is capable of knowing beforehand whether an in- 
tended act will or will not conform to some known law 
or rule of right. It is equally certain that he only, of all 
animals, is capable of forming correct and systematic rales 
of action and of conforming his conduct to the same. 
And notwithstanding the physical, mental, and moral 
nature of man may be somewhat mysterious, the powers 
and attributes which he possesses are amply sufficient, 
when properly cultivated, to dispel all doubts concerning 
his duties, relations, and obligations as a citizen. 

I will not attempt to settle a question much discussed 
among moral philosophers, whether man has or has not 
that natural perception of right and wrong which is called 
the moral sense; bat he is certainly placed here in a very 
different relation to nature from all other animals — that 
he only has the capacity to improve his condition, and to 
ascend from a state of infancy — to progress onward and 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 109 

upward as to his intellectual and moral qualities to a 
high state of superiority. 

And it is now well demonstrated that this capability 
is controlled and directed by fixed and immutable laws; 
that among them is the necessity of being able to discern 
what will advance his happiness, and also what will retard 
it, or produce disorder and suffering. Whether the cul- 
tivation of his faculties does or does not develop and 
bring into action the moral sense, in like manner as the 
cultivation of his faculties brings into action other powers 
of his mind, as I know it does, is an open question. 

It may be admitted that the rude and uncultivated 
mind of man is not furnished with rules of right and 
wrong, so as to be capable of discerning between virtue 
and vice, or anything which is itself good or bad, unless 
it be in a very limited degree. I suppose it to be true, 
however, that man has not been known anywhere entirely 
destitute of all perception of right and wrong, though he 
has been found in many parts of the earth with very rude 
and imperfect perceptions of such knowledge. 

I entertain no doubt that what may be called the moral 
sense does exist in the mind as a faculty, in all men to 
some extent, as a necessary consequence of their exist- 
ence as men ; and this sense may be developed and dis- 
ciplined in like manner as the other faculties of the mind 
may be; and that by suitable cultivation this moral sense 
acquires a discriminating power, which may be called 
almost intuitive with respect to right and wrong. Indeed, 
it seems reasonable to suppose that there are very many 
persons who have this sense so developed by long-con- 
tinued discipline, that they judge almost infallibly, as soon 



110 A TREATISE ON THE 

as a proposition is presented to them, of its character in 
relation to the most refined rules of fitness and propriety. 

If I am right in this supposition, I think the moral 
sense is derived from a clear perception and a ready ap- 
plication of the laws which nature has prescribed for 
human conduct, and from like perception and application 
of the conventional laws which originate in social life. 
In proportion as the mind becomes well instructed in the 
meaning and use of the former description of laws, those 
which are of human institution are found to be right or 
wrong, just as they do or do not conform to those laws. 
I can not resist the conviction that if man is to be happy, 
he must be so by conforming to laws which nature has 
prescribed; and this purpose would evidently be defeated 
if those who are the objects of laws were not capable 
of comprehending them, and of making their own laws 
consistent with them. 

In a multitude of instances the duty of obedience to 
laws, whether taken to be natural or human, must depend 
upon an immediate perception of their application to that 
which is to be done or to be avoided. To this it may be 
answered, that this is no more than the use of that intel- 
ligence which discipline imparts to all the intellectual 
faculties. 

Consequently, it would seem that if a man was born 
with feeble mental and moral faculties, and surrounded 
by circumstances which forbade his cultivating them, he 
should not be held so accountable as others who were 
more favored — as others more intellectual and discrimi- 
nating; for it is admitted by all that the idiot is not ac- 
countable at all to the moral or social laws — he is alone 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. Ill 

amenable to the organic and physical — he will, by a slip 
of the foot, fall as hard and get hurt as much as a philoso- 
pher. Therefore, it is clear that the God of nature makes 
no allowance for ignorance or debility. 

And now, in conclusion, allow me to state that whether 
there be such "moral sense" or not in the original forma- 
tion of man, it will sufficiently answer all practical pur- 
poses to establish such moral sense by a proper course of 
training, by which he may attain to a knowledge of those- 
laws and rules that are adapted to secure to him all the 
intelligence and happiness of which he is capable or 
should reasonably expect. 



112 A TREATISE ON THE 



CHAPTER VI. 

HIS PERSONAL FREEDOM. 

There is nothing more certain than that every indi- 
vidual who lives on this terrestrial sphere came into it 
with a natural organization differing from that of every 
other individual. This, in the order of nature, fits him 
for the performance of a peculiar mission, and for par- 
ticular duties, as is plainly shown by the great science 
of phrenology. 

Now if this natural organization is in any way re- 
strained, or the aspirations of the individual too much 
curbed, society may, perhaps, secure an outward com- 
pliance with what is termed custom and law. But where 
the mere dictates of expediency establish custom and law 
for society, they oppose the proper development of the 
individual, and consequently hinder the progress of 
society. I do not mean by these remarks that a proper 
restraint should not be exercised to prevent the com- 
mission of acts which militate against the welfare and 
peace of society. But while the rights of others are 
unmolested, the greatest freedom consistent with the 
public good should be allowed to every person, and 
none but shallow-pated bigots or constitutional tyrants 
will refuse such freedom to any one. 

No ridiculous or petty restrictions should ever hamper 



INTELLECTUAL, MOKAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 113 

his natural tastes and inclinations. What one may 
enjoy and greatly approve, another may take no delight 
in, but severely censure. 

The question may be merely a matter of opinion, and 
in the judgment of one good may result, and in the 
judgment of the other positive harm may ensue. Each 
will be sincere, and will be equally well supported by 
the opinions of others; but as far as a mere question of 
opinion is concerned, no one person or set of persons 
has the right to condemn another; for the largest liberty 
of opinion and of action should be guaranteed to all, 
and neither in the family circle, nor in the social walks 
of life, should any one seek to enforce his peculiar 
notions and tastes upon others. g . 

The force of example and the general power of per- 
suasion can accomplish far more than can ever be ef- 
fected by arbitrary and despotic compulsion. 

There are some communities which set up for them- 
selves a certain standard of morals, or rather prejudices, 
and vainly bask in the sunshine of a belief, which to 
other men seem absurd and ridiculous. The time comes 
when an individual desires to settle among them, and he 
is expected to conform to all their customs and pecu- 
liarities ; but if he resist, and express by his conduct his 
desire to follow his own notions, and that without in 
the least interfering with the rights of others, he imme- 
diately becomes the recipient of much low slang and 
persecution. He may be a moral, industrious, and use- 
ful citizen, yet all this amounts to nothing unless he has 
ample means and belongs to some of the popular and 
fashionable societies. 



114 A TREATISE ON THE 

He is willing to move along quietly and mind his own 
business, but this trait of character many of his more 
self-pious neighbors seem to be almost entirely destitute 
of. People ought to attend to their own business more 
carefully and allow their neighbors to take care of 
theirs. They lose sight of the fact that a community 
must be just, liberal, and truly religious, not only in 
words and pretentions, but in their moral conduct, before 
it can set itself up as a fair model for all men to follow* 
They forget that every man has a right to do just as he 
pleases, so long as he sacredly regards the rights of 
others. 

Too many of us are slaves of perverted habit; slaves 
of custom and fashion; slaves of an unenlightened public 
opinion, which is ready to crush the smallest exercise 
oY the sovereignty of the individual; slaves of systems 
and laws which the world has outgrown, and which are 
but fetters to hinder our progress. Let all allow the 
same freedom to others, in thought and action, which 
they claim for themselves, and one great step will be 
taken in the progress of the world which society has 
long been waiting for, and which was never more needed 
than it is at present. 



115 



CHAPTER VII. 

HIS SELF-IMPROVEMENT. 

Self-improvement consists in the growth of the men- 
tal organs and faculties ; for the mind, in its voluntary 
capacity, is what makes the man. The mind is consti- 
tuted to act voluntarily, and these voluntary acts, 
whether agreeable or disagreeable to the eyes of others, 
determine the character of the individual, but which, 
in reality, signify the character of the mind. There are 
two classes of minds — one conservative, the other pro- 
gressive — and why? Because different minds have 
different degrees of cerebral growth and expansion. 
Conservative minds are apparently stationary, by grow- 
ing or expanding so slowly that their field of mental 
vision or comprehension does not apparently widen or 
advance in the distance. Hence, their views become 
fixed or definite ; whereas, if they possessed a more ex- 
pansive comprehension, their field of thought would so 
widen, deepen, and lengthen that they would no longer 
be conservative, but progressive. The brain is the*organ 
of the mind — the seat and source of all the passions and 
affections — and not the heart, as so many erroneously 
suppose ; as well talk about the liver having high moral 
or immoral functions. It is true the heart frequently 
acts in sympathy with the mind — responds to it; but 
invariably the effect is first produced on the mind, and 



116 A TREATISE ON THE 

the various consequences follow — such, as joy, grief, 
fear, anger, etc. — and which sometimes result in sudden 
deaths. Yea, the brain is a true representative of its 
perceptive, reflective, and potential character. Hence, 
its size, texture, and activity combined, bespeak the 
constitution of its indwelling mental power and prin- 
ciple; consequently, in proportion as the mind becomes 
more and more comprehensive, the quality or texture 
of the brain becomes correspondingly modified by being 
improved and elevated, and vice versa. Hence, mental 
improvement becomes, in reality, cerebral improve- 
ment, mental growth, or expansion; also, cerebral 
growth or expansion. 

Consequently, the growth of the mental and phre- 
nological organs is an actual index of a progressive 
mind; and whenever such growth is not present, it is 
equally an index of a conservative mind. On this 
principle is established the progressive and improving 
tendencies of children. Their brains, subject to the 
organic powers of their minds, gradually increase in 
size, and hence their field of mental vision proportionally 
widens, deepens, and lengthens, causing thereby new 
ideas or thoughts to unfold themselves to their compre- 
hension. But when the day of full maturity overtakes 
them,, then it is that they settle down on preconceived 
ideas or convictions as real conservatives. They are 
capable of seeing a certain distance, and being incapable 
of extending further, must stop — why? Because the 
proper incentive to a higher degree of mental action is 
wanting. Hence, they forever after merely float along, 
embracing the popular fashions, doctrines, and preju- 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 117 

dices of the day; and at forty are less capable of rea- 
soning from causes to effects than they were when only 
twenty years old. 

Now, as an illustration of the foregoing, take the or- 
gans of order, ideality, and approbativeness. Their 
mental functions prompt their possessor to love the 
orderly and neat in everything. But if these organs be 
not well developed, their possessors will have no great 
dislike to disorder and confusion — to filth and gross- 
ness. All such citizens of towns and cities can, with 
great indifference, allow their dwelling-houses and all 
out-buildings to remain in a rough, unpainted, and 
dilapidated condition; their door-yards poorly fenced, 
and covered with trash and weeds; gates broken or 
dragging; the cows and pigs occasionally around the 
house, forbidding all flowers and shrubbery. And as a 
general thing in the towns, the stabling and surround- 
ings are in a rough and disorderly fix — the gates drag- 
ging, the poor cows standing out in the chilling storms, 
the pigs shut up in their sties above their knees in cold 
mud or without bedding. 

Yet these same men appear in their respective 
churches richly or duly and neatly fixed up, as if all 
things were right and comfortable at home. Now there 
are a great many citizens in Thorntown, Lebanon, and 
other places, who have never, perhaps, taken much no- 
tice of these things; I would therefore respectfully in- 
vite all such to take an evening walk, now and then, 
through their respective towns, and be cautioned. 

And the farmers, as a class, are not a whit behind the 
inhabitants of the towns as regards their uncomely 



118 A TREATISE ON THE 

appearance at home; indeed, they are generally worse. 
All fencing around their farms partially down; the cor- 
ners choked with sprouts, briars, and weeds; their barns 
and all the surroundings looking like desolation; the 
yard covered with bits of rails and lumber; the gates 
out of repair and dragging ; their wagons old, rough, 
and broken; their plows, hoes, shovels, forks, etc., 
quite rusty — some in and round the barn, others over 
the farm in the fence corners — anywhere and every- 
where being with them their proper places. Again, 
quite too many of our farmers who are in easy circum- 
stances appear in the towns and at public gatherings 
as paupers, wearing coarse, rough, and broken apparel, 
in uniform with their wagons and harness. This is the 
other extreme; this is not paying a due respect to 
themselves, nor to those with whom they mingle. 

Such, indeed, is the character of too many men in the 
towns — such the character of a great many of our farm- 
ers ; and I am truly sorry that I can say so much, hav- 
ing been myself a farmer in Montgomery county, Indi- 
ana, just thirty-five years. But after all this, I am 
proud to acknowledge that they are, as a class, our 
most industrious, useful, and respectable people; pos- 
sessing withal more honesty and practical sense than 
a like number of the inhabitants of the towns. Yet 
they might be far more useful and respectable had they 
more regard for order and neatness in all they do — 
more regard for their appearance at home and abroad; 
and hence to hand down to their children and to pos- 
terity those ennobling and refining qualities, and less 
regard for hoarding up money and land, land and money. 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 119 

to be mostly squandered — to fall into the hands of 
sharpers and sharks soon after the accumulators have 
gone to their eternal rest. 

What is true of one organ is equally so of all. The 
largest have the widest and longest range of compre- 
hension with any people, and vice versa. Hence it is 
that a ceaseless growth or expanse of the brain, or of 
any organ of the brain, must necessarily widen and 
elevate one's range of ideas, and make him progressive. 
And progression is no less than self-improvement. 

And finally, he who would make good progress in 
self-improvement, and be a man, and not a mental 
slave, must have a mind so liberal and so bold as to 
dare think for himself; and hence, to investigate both 
sides of every subject, and to speak his sentiments on 
all proper occasions ; as to dare do right under all cir- 
cumstances, "not minding what people will say" — not 
minding how many shallow heads and wise heads, 
saints and sinners, may become displeased with him ; 
" for if God (the Right) be for us, who can be against us ?" 



120 A TREATISE ON THE 



CHAPTER VIII. 

HIS SELF-RESPECT AND LIFE-TIME DUTIES. 

Every person has some sort of an opinion, more or 
less distinct, of all persons with whom he is acquainted. 
This opinion may embrace intellect, disposition, virtues, 
vices, personal appearance, deportment, condition in 
life, etc. So, also, every one has some opinion of him- 
self on the same, and upon many other subjects, best 
known to himself. 

When one examines himself, he seems to do it as 
though he were another person; he uses the eyes of 
ethers. He turns aside, as it were, by the way, to see 
himself pass by. The judgment which he forms of 
himself is generally much more unsound than that 
which he forms of others; for the eye can not see itself; 
so neither can any man see himself. He must use a 
mirror, and there are many of these — books, history, 
daily example, every person with w T hom he comes in 
daily contact, his own experience, etc. If he sees him- 
self in these, and thereby corrects his own errors and 
follies, and gives himself reasonable and just credit for 
his attainments, he may come at last to be entitled to 
entertain a respect for himself. There is a certain best 
thing to be done, and a certain best manner of doing it 
in all possible circumstances in which one may find 
himself. Nothing is entitled to be considered best or 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 121 

just, which does not conform to natural law. To that 
best thing, and to that best manner, no one, perhaps, 
ever perfectly attains; but it can not be doubted that 
there is some such standard, and he who comes the 
nearest to it, is he who is best entitled to entertain a 
good respect for himself. There are some persons who 
seem to have had this standard in view throughout 
their lives; while the great majority seem to merely 
stumble and float along as if they had never even 
thought of any such principles or rules of action — as if 
they had no right or necessity to think for themselves — 
as if it were sufficient for them to think and to act as 
certain other people think and act. 

But the truth is, man was created for action — created 
to think and to act for himself — to be the arbiter of 
his own destiny — to save himself, and to perpetuate 
and elevate his dear race. His actions were intended 
to enable him to secure good to himself; and good 
to himself depends upon the performance of his du- 
ties to himself, to his family, to society, to his race. 
Duty to himself and to his country requires that he 
should improve his faculties — should avail himself of 
all the opportunities given to him for that purpose. 
The hours, then, which are permitted to slide by without 
any improvement are forever lost; and in so losing 
them he breaks a moral law and must suffer for it. 

Apply this to the vocations in which one is to culti- 
vate his mind in any business, mechanical or literary. 
When any one sees himself surpassed by others and 
left far in the rear; when he is called upon to measure 
himself against another; and when he sees that com- 



122 A TREATISE ON THE 

parisons are made between him and others, greatly to 
his disadvantage, he may feel, and most men do feel, 
that they are thus depreciated because the precious time 
which was allotted to improvement has been passed in 
trifling amusements, or in idle pursuits. To some 
minds the suffering from such causes is extremely acute. 
The bitter rememberance which they have of the past, 
as connected with the present and the future, is the 
punishment for breaking a positive law. They may 
console themselves, perhaps, with the firm resolution 
that they w T ill repair the wrong done in the past time 
by diligence in the time to come; but they find that 
time brings with it its own demands. They are fortu- 
nate, indeed, if they can do in one space that which be- 
longs to it, and also that which belongs to another, and 
in another season of life. 

One can hardly say correctly that his time is his own, 
and that he may dispose of it as he pleases. His time is 
his life. It is given to him in trust, and like other 
trustees he will be held to an account, in which there is 
no possibility of concealment, and where nothing will 
depend on proof; and also, it may be supposed that his 
conscience will some day say to him, as he reviews his 
past career: 

" There was confided to your use a term of time, and 
you knew, or could have known, the laws prescribed to 
you in performing your trust; then have you come from 
that trust to render an account burdened with self- 
reproach, and with marks of guilt which you can not 
hide ; or are you come without any advancement in the 
knowledge of your duties, and with no other account 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 123 

than that your days rolled by in boyish pursuits or use- 
less and profligate amusements, but little wiser now, 
when you have about done with the world, than when 
you left the cradle of infancy? Or are you come with 
the exalted acquirements which you might have, and 
with that innocence and purity which you would have, 
if you had obeyed the laws of your nature? "Where 
have you read in these laws that no duties to yourself 
and to your associates were enjoined upon you? Have 
you not been told by every breath you drew, by every 
movement of your frame, by every thought of your 
mind, by every just pleasure that you have had, by 
every pang that you have suffered, and by all that you 
have been capable of perceiving and learning, that 
there were laws or rules of action laid down to you as 
your unerring guide in the discharge of your sacred 
trust, and that an account of your stewardship would 
finally be exacted ? " 



124 A TREATISE ON THE 



CHAPTER IX. 

SOCIAL RIGHTS AND DUTIES. 

On this subject many fanciful theories have been 
given to the world. The ancient poets represented 
mankind as at first in a state of innocence and happi- 
ness during what is termed the golden age, and as de- 
clining gradually into vice and misery through the sil- 
ver, brazen, and iron ages. The Bible also informs us 
that at the commencement of our race, man was per- 
fect. Some dreamers have imagined solitude in the 
cave and forest to be the natural condition of man, and 
have attributed most of the evils which afflict humanity 
to the institution of society and private possessions. 

The great error of such theorists is, that they assume 
the mind to be altogether passive — to have no sponta- 
neous activity giving origin to wants or desires; and 
ascribe the formation of almost all our propensities and 
tastes to the situation in which they were first mani- 
fested 

A more rational view of the origin of society sug- 
gests the idea, that man, having been endowed w r ith 
natural aptitudes and desires, founds upon these every 
institution which has been universal among mankind; 
therefore, the origin of society is to be attributed to the 
social principle. 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 125 

What, then, is the solution that human nature, prop- 
erly understood, presents to us? It shows that man 
possesses mental faculties endowed with spontaneous 
activity, which give rise to many desires equally defi- 
nite with the appetite for food; and that among these 
faculties are several which act as social instincts, and 
from the spontaneous activity of these, society has 
obviously been proceeded. 

The gregarious instinct or propensity in mankind to 
congregate, shows that human nature dictates that we 
should live in the social state, as we can not otherwise 
act in obedience to the requirements of our mental na- 
ture, any more than we can support our physical con- 
stitutions without food and sleep. Of what use would 
the power of speech be to the solitary being ? Without 
combination, what advance could be made in science, 
arts, or manufactures? As hunger is adapted to food, 
aud the sense of vision to light, so is society adapted 
to the social faculties of man ; indeed, the presence of 
human beings is indispensable to the gratification and 
excitement of our mental powers in general, for what 
a void and craving is experienced by those who are cut 
off from communication with their fellows. Persons 
who have been placed in remote and solitary stations 
on the confines of civilization have uniformly become 
dull in intellect, shy, unsocial, and unhappy. 

In some one of our prisons, the criminals are allowed 
to work together during the day, but are strictly pro- 
hibited from speaking or otherwise communicating 
with each other; yet the very presence of their com- 



126 A TREATISE ON THE 

panions is found to sustain the social faculties, so that 
their health is not greatly impaired. 

The balmy influence of society on the human mind 
may be discovered in the vivacious and generally happy 
aspect of those who live in the bosom of a family or 
mingle freely with the world; while the chilling effect 
of solitude is apparent in the cold, starched, and stag- 
nated manners and expression of those who refrain 
from associating with their fellow-creatures. A man 
whose muscular, digestive, respiratory, and circulating 
systems greatly predominate in energy over the nervous 
system, stands in less need of society to gratify his 
mental faculties than an individual oppositely consti- 
tuted ; he delights in active muscular exercise, and is 
never so happy as with the elastic turf beneath his feet 
and the blue vault of heaven over his head. But where 
the brain and nervous system are most energetic, there 
arise mental wants which can be gratified only in so- 
ciety, hence a residence in a town or city is felt indis- 
pensable to enjoyment; the mind flags and becomes 
feeble when not stimulated by collision and converse 
with kindred spirits. In short, the social state is 
plainly as natural to man as it is to the bee, the raven, 
or the sheep. This question, then, being set at rest, 
the duties implied in the constitution of a society are 
next to be considered. The first duty imposed on man 
in relation to society is industry — a duty, the origin 
and sanction of which are easily discovered. Man 
comes into the world naked, unprotected, and unpro- 
vided for. He does not, like the brutes, find his skin 
clothed with a sufficient covering, but he must provide 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 127 

garments for himself; he can not perch on a bough or 
burrow in a hole, but must rear a dwelling to protect 
himself from the weather; he does not, like the ox, 
find his nourishment under his feet, but must hunt or 
cultivate the ground. 

To capacitate him for the performance of these nec- 
essary duties, he has received a body fitted for labor 
and a mind calculated to direct his exertions, while the 
external world is adapted to his constitution. The too 
prevalent notion that labor is an evil, and rather a dis- 
grace, must have arisen from the ignorance of the con- 
stitution of man, and from contemplating the effects, of 
labor when carried to excess. 

Labor, in the proper sense of the word, is exertion, 
either bodily or mental, for useful purposes. That man 
was intended by his nature to labor is evident, not only 
from the fact that very few gratifications are attainable 
without it, and a great many by its aid, but by the 
structure and laws of his constitution, which proclaim 
that active employment is essential to his welfare in 
every sense of the word — physically, mentally, morally, 
religiously, and socially. The misery and degradation 
of idleness has been a favorite theme of moralists in 
every age, and its baneful influence on the moral and 
bodily health has equally attracted the notice of the 
physician and of observers in general. Yea, there are 
this day millions upon millions literally dying oft' 
solely for the want of physical labor — many millions 
of them too idle or too proud to soil their hands, even 
to save their own lives. Indeed, happiness is nothing 
but the gratification of active faculties; and hence the 



128 A TREATISE ON THE 

more active our faculties are, and the more numerous 
those in agreeable action, the greater is the happiness 
which we enjoy. 

But there can be no high, sustained, and healthy- 
moral or spiritual life here on earth, except in connec- 
tion with habits of wise bodily and mental discipline; be- 
cause bad circumstances and influences can neither 
produce nor maintain good men ; indeed, they furnish 
the seeds of good or evil, and man is but the soil in 
which they grow. 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 129 



CHAPTER X. 

HIS PECULIARITES AND VARIETIES. 

*T is ignorance that binds people in chains; 
'T is this, too, folly and fashion maintains. 

Man in all ages of the world, in every clime, and on 
every isolated island, has possessed invariably the same 
cardinal elements of character ; but, like all other ani- 
mals, various and dissimilar in his colors, forms, lan- 
guages, and mental peculiarities. 

Yes, the God of Nature has made peculiarity and 
variety a fundamental law, for no two of his produc- 
tions are exactly alike, and this law is invariably ob- 
served throughout his whole domain. 

Through all grades of existence, from the lowest ani- 
malcule to the most magnificent universe sweeping 
through space, peculiarity and variety illimitable is 
stamped upon all. 

Similarity may exist superficially, yet dissimilarity 
inheres in all substantially. 

The leaves on the trees, the flowers in the valleys, 
the sands on the coasts, the fowls of the air, the hosts of 
worlds which fill the immensity of space — all exist with 
a specific peculiarity and variety in all their phenomenal 
manifestations. 

The mineral kingdom may be grouped into species — 
the animal classified into races, families, types, or genus ; 
yet these are broken up into endless subdivisions, which 



130 A TREATISE ON THE 

run off into an infinitude of varieties. Mankind also 
exists in types, races, and families. The types are as 
distinct in their external phenomena as color can pos- 
sibly make them. Their organization of brain, their 
mental characteristics, their languages, habits, and ail the 
non-essentials to existence present the same peculiarities 
and varieties. 

Every animal has its individual character; every 
man has something distinguishing in form, proportions, 
countenance, voice, and gesture — in feelings, temper, 
and thought. Our notions, opinions, likes, dislikes, 
tastes, and talents are as various and dissimilar as our 
faces and persons. And this variety is the source of 
everything interesting and beautiful in the external 
world — the foundation of nearly the whole moral and 
social fabric of the universe. 

Indeed, we are so constituted and related to each 
other, and to the surrounding objects and influences, 
that it is utterly impossible for us to think alike upon 
almost any subject. 

And this fact, this wise providence, is certainly one 
of our greatest blessings, for without it there would 
soon be an end to all investigation, progress, and civil 
liberty. 

Yet, strange to tell, that, on account of this highest 
blessing, we are, and have been, in all ages of the world, 
hating and persecuting each other. Yea, for no other 
cause the ancient nations visited each other with bloody 
wars and terrible desolations. Hence how low, foolish 
and unkind it is to proscribe and persecute our neigh- 
bors merely because they are not of our political party, 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 131 

not of " our church " — because they can not see through 
our smoky and perverted glasses. For it is not what we 
may believe or profess which makes us good or bad, but 
it is what we do — what we do. It makes no difference 
who raised the wheat, or where it grew ; but the only 
question is, and must ever be, is it good wheat ? Is it 
a merchantable article ? Again, those who oppose a 
doctrine, creed, or institution do as much to maintain, 
build up, and perpetuate it as those who advocate it ; 
for this opposition is merely a necessary evil, but which 
answers the same important purposes in society that the 
cumbersome brakes do on the trains, to prevent us run- 
ning too rapidly, to excite, and to provide time for in- 
vestigation — to avoid fatal reaction. 

Yes, those who oppose us in politics, in religion, or upon 
any other subjects, are in the end our best friends and 
benefactors. They are our sentinels on the watch-tower 
while we sleep, and vice versa. For the world exists but 
by conflict, and is only maintained by opposition ; we 
ever find one force pitted against another, and all 
things find their contrarieties to be the foundation of 
their preservation and their perpetuity. 

Again, it matters not what may be the mere knowl- 
edge given to men, or the moral and religious pre- 
cepts taught them, if the other circumstances by which 
they are surrounded be disregarded ; because bad cir- 
cumstances and influences can neither produce nor main- 
tain good men ; indeed, they furnish the seeds of good 
or evil, and man is but the soil in which they grow. 

Then- 
Why blame the thistles for having grown, 
After we ourselves the seeds had sown. 



132 A TREATISE ON THE 



CHAPTER XI. 

HIS MORAL EVIL. 

God has planted in every evil the seeds of its overthrow and destruction. 

" Fair truth ! for thee alone we seek ! 
Friend to the wise, supporter to the weak ; 
From thee we learn whate'er is wise and just, 
"Wrongs to reject, pretensions to distrust." 

A man's reason is that faculty of the mind which 
enables him to distinguish truth from falsehood, and 
good from evil. It is the originator of all human so- 
ciety, of all governments, and of all true religion; and 
to the tribunal of reason he should bring all questions, 
whether they are said to be divine or human ; and if they 
will not stand a fair, honest, and common sense approval, 
he should adjudicate accordingly and throw them out of 
court. Therefore, in order to properly examine a 
question of such great importance as "whence cometh 
moral evil," and one on which so many conflicting opin- 
ions have been entertained in all ages of the world, we 
should be governed by "fair truth," reason, and common 
sense; we should consider man as he really is, a natural 
being, governed, affected, and controlled solely by nat- 
ural laws. Hence we must contemplate our species as 
they are sent into the world, almost entirely destitute 
of every kind and degree of knowledge, but endowed 
with mental faculties susceptible of improvement and 
continual progression. 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 133 

We are also endowed with innate appetites and pas- 
sions, which were intended to answer the very best pur- 
poses when under the control of reason, by which means 
their impulsive operations are restrained within due 
bounds and directed to proper objects. There are 
also proper objects destined to act upon these appetites 
and passions, which may be called motives or incen- 
tives to action; and were we to be divested of these 
appetites and passions, and the objects withdrawn 
which are destined to act upon and excite them, we 
should be as useless in creation as a ship without sails 
or rudder. 

When we are excited by these means to the perform- 
ance of any good and necessary act, we do our duty and 
incur no penalty ; but when the excitement leads to a 
breach of law, it is a wrong act, and the perpetration 
criminal, being calculated to produce disorder, strife, and 
misery. Under these circumstances we are placed here 
at school, to learn laws, to acquire an experimental 
knowledge of the nature and consequences of just and 
honorable actions, and also of physical, moral, and so- 
cial evils, by which means we may finally be convinced 
that without obedience to laws it is impossible to be 
healthy, prosperous, and happy, or to live out our allot- 
ted time, to fill our mission here on earth, and that deg- 
redation and suffering are the natural, necessary, and 
inevitable cousequences of lawless actions. 

And, on the contrary, that well-doing, happiness, and 
longevity are the natural results invariably following 
the exercise of industry, prudence, justice, and benevo- 
lence ; hence every man in society is amply rewarded 



134 A TREATISE ON THE 

for all his good works and punished equivalently for 
all his bad works. Again, all mankind are naturally 
endowed with a large amount of self-love, and prone 
to live almost entirely for themselves, regardless of the 
rights of others. 

They were also created with many wants and desires, 
and it was equally unnatural for them to willingly labor 
to gratify and supply these wants and desires ; there- 
fore, not being content with the comforts produced by 
their own industry, they coveted those of their moie 
worthy fellow-men. Now the strong rose up againsst 
the feeble to take from them the fruits of their labor; 
the feeble united with other feeble to oppose their vio- 
lence. 

And the strong said, why worry ourselves to produce 
the necessaries of life which we can find in the hands 
of others ? Therefore, let us unite and ^dispoil them ; 
they shall produce for us, and we will live without toil. 
Now, those uncontrolled appetites and passions having 
assumed a thousand different forms, the strong united 
for oppression, and the feeble for self-protection ; men 
mutually robbed and tormented each other, thereby 
producing oppressors and the oppressed, the rich and 
the poor, the master and the slave, until universal dis- 
cord, strife, and misery have spread all over the world, 
and 'so long as the causes — ignorance and cupidity— 
shall reign supreme, as they now do, the mischievous 
and degrading effects can never cease. 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 135 



CHAPTER XII. 

HIS PENALTIES. 

Man has ever been a rebellious animal, living in daily 
violation of the sacred laws of his being, an enemy 
practically to himself, to his family, and to his race; 
fastening on them, by entailment and otherwise, untold 
troubles and afflictions. But this state of things was, to 
a great extent, unavoidable, and even necessary, to teach 
the people those laws and the penalties attached to 
them necessary to preserve and to restrain them. 

For if the young, or even the aged, could revel in dissi- 
pation and crime with impunity, when and where would 
they stop ? When would they ever cease to do evil and 
learn to do good? And when would they ever even 
think of laws? Never! And it is a self-evident fact, 
that no man can possibly find a true and lasting interest 
in doing a wrong act against his country or his fellow- 
man, for just so sure as he does a wrong act — violates 
any one or more of nature's laws, the laws of his being, 
or of society — just as sure will suffering, consequent, 
sooner or later, overtake him or his posterity, or both. 
Because this suffering is as inseparable from crime as 
an effect is from its cause; is blended in the very 
nature of things — in the constitution of those wise and 
benevolent laws — and which is, and ever must be, in 
strict proportion to the transgression. Without this 
suffering upon the infraction of laws, we never could 



136 A TREATISE ON THE 

have learned them nor the penalties attached to their 
violation; never could have progressed in civilization 
and refinement ; never could have properly appreciated 
anything; never could have risen higher in the scale 
of animated nature than the common animal. 

It is true we learn many of those laws from books 
and observation; but some bodies had first to learn them by 
suffering the penalties incident to their violation, or else they 
never could have been learned. 

And it was made possible, and even convenient, 
under proper discipline, to so learn and to appreciate 
those laws, that by maturity we might be wise and pru- 
dent enough the rest of our lives to live measurably in 
obedience to them, and thereby avoid to a great extent 
that long catalogue of troubles and afflictions which 
overtake so very many of the human family. 

But it seems that every man's cup must be mixed 
with joys and sorrows, for we are surrounded with 
temptations ; and the great store-house from which we 
have to draw our pittance is filled with both healthful 
and poisonous viands intermixed, and every man has 
to be his own druggist, that he may so mix his cup as 
to suit his peculiar temperament and appetite; and in 
so compounding, when he unfortunately poisons him- 
self, as multiplied millions do, the consequences are his 
own. 

But everything must have its opposite ; the one implies 
the other; the one as necessary as the other. Xor can 
we fully estimate the one without first realizing the 
other; we must suffer from the one to greatly enjoy the 
other. Hence, it is obvious that it was in the plan of 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 137 

Deity, that man from infancy to maturity, at leats, 
must necessarily and unavoidably violate laws that he 
might learn laws — that he might learn practical life — 
that he might learn enough of men and things to per- 
petuate and to. elevate his race. And which knowledge 
could be acquired by having, as before said, to suffer 
the pains and penalties incident to the infraction of 
laws, and, also, in being allowed the manifold and un- 
speakable blessings consequent upon living in obedi- 
ence to them. 

And the great beauty and utility of this divine plan 
is, that these two opposite forces act upon us as incen- 
tives to obey laws ; the former repels us from the wrong ; 
the latter attracts us to the right. This is the way, the 
only way, that our great Preceptor has to teach us 
these laws, and to induce us to live in obedience to 
them. 

We are his pupils from infancy until our decease ; 
and all our trials, troubles, and afflictions are but so 
many kind lessons imparted to teach us wisdom, justice, 
benevolence, and humanity. 

Then it would seem from the foregoing, that man, 
notwithstanding his foibles and misgivings, is all right 
as created; from the fact he possesses no mental attri- 
bute, no appetite or passion, which is not indispensably 
necessary to his well-being when properly controlled 
and directed by intelligence. 

But this man can only act from what he knows; nor 
can he learn anything only through the medium of his 
five physical senses : hearing, smelling, feeling, tasting, 
and seeing, ifow if these senses be feeble or unculti- 



138 A TREATISE ON THE 

vated, and lie remains too ignorant to know the laws 
of his being and of society, how is he to obey them? 
Indeed, ignorance is the great sin — the primitive cause 
of nearly all suffering and crime — for every man loves 
himself well enough to desire happiness. 

The mind of a child is like unto a sheet of fair paper, 
on which everybody except himself is allowed to 
scribble. He no more makes his own mind and char- 
acter than he does his person; therefore, his future must 
be just what entailment and education make him. 

Hence, the present unfortunate condition of the 
masses who float along on the ocean of human opinions 
without compass or rudder — left to the mercy of their 
tempestuous passions, with no other guide than unskill- 
ful pilots, ignorant of their course and whither they 
goeth. 

Yes, man is truly a creature of circumstances. His 
country, his parents, entailments, education, and relig- 
ion are all matters over which he has nb control ; if he 
had been born in Turkey, he would have been a Mo- 
hommedan ; in Hindostan, a Brahmin ; and in China, 
a Buddhist — would have consulted the sticks of fate. 

Verily, he only acts as he is acted upon ; and ever in 
obedience to the one or to the other of the two great 
forces, attraction and repulsion, between which he ever 
vibrates. Indeed, the poor fellow has to run the gaunt- 
let all the days of his life. 

These propositions are as true and invariable as the 
needle to its pole, or as the laws which govern cause 
and effect; then why slander man, as being by nature 
base and vile, and in the very next breath deify him as 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 139 

being the creator and director of his mind, character, 
and destiny. Nor should we denounce and despise the 
poor, ignorant, and reckless because they are so ; from 
the fact their condition has been forced upon them 
by entailment, education, monopoly, and superstition — 
by laws and institutions not in harmony with human 
nature, divine justice, love and mercy. 

Why blame the thistle for having grown, 
After we ourselves the seeds had sown? 



140 A TREATISE ON THE 



CHAPTER XIII. 

HIS ACTIONS ARE THE RESULTS OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 

I now propose to discuss the doctrine expressed in 
the above caption, but in so doing will be compelled 
to tread upon controverted ground; but, nevertheless, 
am aswell satisfied of the truth of the proposition 
as I am of the truth of the plainest mathematical 
axiom. It is not only true as regards the actions of 
men, but it is equally true of every kind of action, 
whether physical, moral, or social, throughout the whole 
kingdom of nature. It is a well-established theory that 
all bodies occupying infinite space, whether organic or 
inorganic, animate or inanimate, move or act in obedi- 
ence to one of two great fundamental or primary forces, 
namely, attraction or repulsion ; that one or the other 
of these two forces must be greater than the other, 
otherwise no action can be produced. This theory will 
be admitted to be true as regards physical action. Then 
the only question is, is this theory also true as regards 
moral action? It evidently is. For example, whenever 
an individual is prompted to do an act, whether it be of 
a moral or social nature, there are always present with 
the person, in his mind, two antagonistic principles, 
generally termed a will and a nill, corresponding with I 
will and I will not. Or, in other words, the person is 
influenced or acted upon by an inclination and a disin- 
clination to do the thing contemplated ; and whatever the 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 141 

individual finally does in the premises is invariably in 
obedience to the greater of these two contending forces. 

The proportional strength, character, quality, etc., of 
these two forces, depend and rest upon the immediate 
anterior circumstances of the individual at the time the 
act was done. 

How many, or what the precise character, the combi- 
nations, etc., of these circumstances that underlie and 
constitute the cause of all human actions are, is not 
within the knowledge or capacity of any one to say or 
describe; yet we can obtain a knowledge of some, or 
even many of the circumstances that induce us to do and 
to act as we do. 

Another truism is, that there never are, nor can be, 
two circumstances precisely alike; consequently no two 
persons can be placed in exactly the same circumstances, 
on the same principle that two bodies can not occupy 
the same place at the same time. 

Now for an illustration. I will take two persons, A. 
and B., who live in the same town. A. is a strict mem- 
ber of a popular church; believes our Bible to be the 
revealed will of God, but that all others are the pro- 
ductions of ignorant or designing men, consequently of 
no use to the world. 

Believes there is a heaven to gain and a hell to shun 
in a future state of existence, and that the only road to 
that heaven is through the church, which he attends reg- 
ularly, and prays feelingly (the more we feel the less we 
reason). 

He has an exalted idea of his own wisdom and 'piety ; 
condemns and consigns to an endless hell all who have 



142 A TREATISE ON THE 

to differ with him in opinion ; looks upon infidels (so- 
called) or liberalists, and their principles, as extremely 
immoral and dangerous, consequently has but little sym- 
pathy and affiliation for them. 

On the contrary, B. is a liberalist, and believes all 
bibles, churches, creeds, theories, and institutions to 
be good and useful in their day ; hence can cheerfully 
fraternize and commune with all the sects and peoples 
of the earth, because he believes them all equally sin- 
cere and honest in their views and pretensions, acting 
alike from the best evidences in their possession— -from 
the influences of entailment and education. 

He respects the opinions and even the prejudices of 
all persons and creeds; hates not nor persecutes even the 
brawling and presumptive hypocrite, but merely pities 
such, because they are the imbecile creatures of unfortu- 
nate entailment and education, " knowing not what they 
do." He has no desire to ever realize a future heaven 
unless the lowest and meanest of his race can enjoy it 
as well as himself — all in their proper spheres or man- 
sions ("In my Father's house are many mansions"*), 
according to the everlasting and all-pervading laws of 
affinity and affiliation, there to progress onward and up- 
ward forever more. Denies the existence of a future 
hell, and believes it to be a mere myth, a relic of ancient 
paganism, a doctrine at war with all his ideas of infinite 
wisdom and goodness. He regards all men of every 
class, condition, and occupation, as equally useful and 
necessary in promoting the intelligence, virtue, pros- 
perity ,«• and happiness of their Creator's people as a 

* John, chapter 14, verse 2. 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 143 



whole — all equally worthy and exalted before him, for 
" Peter said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no re- 
specter of persons."* 

Denies, also, that the principles of the liberalists are 
dangerous; that they are anything else than moralizing 
and reformatory, from the fact they study, adore, and 
teach the great laws of nature which govern men physi- 
cally and mentally, morally and socially; try to learn 
something of mental and moral science, something of 
themselves, that they may know how to sympathize and 
indulge their neighbors ; that they may rise above all this 
low persecution and slang so common among very many 
people who consider themselves worthy and respectable. 

And, lastly, they believe that the only sure and safe 
way to secure happiness and salvation here, and hereafter 
is to do right — to be industrious, frugal, honest, kind, 
and truthful — to deal fairly with all "people — in short, to 
live every day in practical obedience to the physical, 
moral, and spiritual laws of our being. 

Now, these two men being equally honest in their 
opinions, what is the cause of the difference of their 
views on this important subject? Evidently nothing 
but different circumstances. As before stated, it is im- 
possible to particularize, but we can generalize. 

The first general circumstance that I shall notice is 
their different training or education. Secondly, the 
organization of the contentes of their craniums is very 
different. The particular organization of the mentality 
of A., together with the natural quality and combination 
of his mental faculties or organs, modified by education, 

*The Acts, chapter 1.0, verse 34. 



144 A TREATISE ON THE 

with other unknown circumstances, in the a^reo-ate, 
constitute the natural and legitimate cause of just such 
results as I have before noticed in regard to the particu- 
lar character of A. So, likewise, the particular char- 
acter of B. has for its cause a particular combination of 
natural and appropriate circumstances. 

Now, how can these men, living in and surrounded by 
such stem, invincible, and overwhelming circumstances, con- 
stituting absolute causes, avoid the natural, necessary, and 
inevitable results? If they can, then a particular cause can 
exist loithout its particular effect, which is absurd. 

Therefore, it is clear that all men act according to cir- 
cumstances, and can no more avoid doing just as they 
do than an effect can exist without a cause; but, never- 
theless, they are, for their own good, for their preser- 
vation and instruction, responsible to all the laws of 
their being and society. 

Indeed, I see an inexorable necessity which produces 
and governs all things. The rain falls and wind blows, 
the sun shines or it is obscured by clouds, simply because 
neither of them can help it. In the moral world there 
are other disturbances on precisely the same principle. 

The American revolution, the war of 1812, and the 
late war between the North and South were brought 
about by unavoidable circumstances. So in the life of 
every individual the same law obtains. Unrelenting 
necessity, like a sheriff, pursues us through all our 
existence. 

We have no choice, strictly speaking, in anything. 
"We are carried along like the mighty waters and the 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 145 

myriads of planets, by the inexorable and everlasting 
laws of necessity — by circumstances. 

It is true we have a will, but then it is always con- 
trolled by the two great forces, attraction and repulsion, 
as aforesaid — by circumstances; and so there is no choice. 

If there were, then there would be free agency, which 
is impossible. For instance, if B. were a free agent, he 
could become a Christian, but he can't so choose, 
because the evidence (which he did not make) is right 
the other way; hence he is a liberalist. 

Byron once said that men are the sport of circum- 
stances. The more I see of human actions, the more I 
am convinced that this saying is correct. 

The philosophy of life seems to be about this: If a 
child happen to be the offspring of what phrenologists 
call a legal and prudent marriage — happen to possess 
favorable physical and mental entailments, and is prop- 
erly trained to industry and economy, and educated to 
know and to appreciate the laws of his being and of 
society, and is put to some useful business, and meets 
with no great misfortunes — he will have a happy and 
respectable existence, and vice versa. But in either case 
he is the creature of circumstances We are forced into 
life, forced through it, and forced out of it; and all 
along the journey, from the cradle to the grave, there 
is not a moment, as it appears to me, in which we are 
not controlled by circumstances. I look upon human 
nature as it is, and see in it the verification of Robert 
Owen's great philosophical and social problem, "Tlie 
character of man is made for him, and not by him."' 

Now, if the above propositions be not correct, how 



146 A TEEATISE ON THE 

and whence comes all this ignorance, poverty, crime, 
degradation, and misery in the world? Do any choose 
to be so? No. Then why are they so? Because they 
could not help it. Circumstances made them what they 
are, and this is the reason of their wretchedness. 

Again, it is a self-evident fact that all men love them- 
selves well enough to desire happiness; therefore, it is 
contrary to all we know of human experience to suppose 
mankind sincerely loves ignorance, poverty, and misery, 
as it would be to suppose that they really prefer blindness 
to seeing, hunger to food, and sore affliction to happiness. 

Then what are the lessons to be derived from this 
kind of philosophy? "Wisdom and benevolence — two 
of our noblest qualifications. The first teaches us the 
vast importance of observing the great and sacred laws 
of marriage, of entailments, and of surrounding our 
offspring with proper circumstances, which, taken to- 
gether,^ and determine the future character and destiny 
of our children. 

It also teaches the beneficence of our Creator in 
having blessed us with such a law, by which we are 
enabled to elevate and refine our dear race, and conse- 
quently to lessen, to a vast extent, the misery and crime 
incident to human society. The second admonishes us 
not to persecute and proscribe our neighbors on account 
of their opinions — not to withdraw our sympathies from 
the wretched and degraded on account of their poverty 
and wretchedness; because circumstances made them 
what they are, and because, also, a variety of things, 
opinions, and classes ever have existed, and must neces- 
sarily and unavoidably ever exist, from the fact it is the 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 147 

order and arrangement of nature. But we should 
rather have compassion for those who are, as we sup- 
pose, more ignorant, destitute, and impious than our- 
selves, and lend them our influence and assistance to 
better their condition — should rather endeavor to estab- 
lish such circumstances as shall secure universal mental 
liberty and social happiness. 



148 A TREATISE ON THE 



CHAPTER XIV. 

HE IS HELD IN THE ARMS OF NECESSITY FOREVER. 

st Happy is the man who, studying nature's laws, 
Through known effects can trace the secret cause." 

The operations of nature and the actions of men 
are nothing more than certain causes producing certain 
effects by an inevitable necessity. And behind any 
effect there must be a cause superior to the effect, nor 
can any effect be produced without an act; and behind 
every act there has to be a power superior to the act 
produced; and so far as I can see, the cause of every 
act is spontaneous, and that spontaneous causes lie back 
beyond the control of human will. Every act is an 
effect, and is part and parcel of the constitution of the 
physical universe, which constitution is self-acting ; and 
so far as I can go with my philosophy, may safely say 
that the universe is self-sustaining and self-directing in 
its magnitude, and in its minutia no less. This uni- 
verse, in its various workings, in its tangible effect, in 
its occult causes, in all its great things and in all its 
little things, in every property and condition, I call 
nature; and all the doings of nature, from her yet un- 
discovered workings in minutia, reaching out to mag- 
nitude yet ungrasped, I call the works of necessity; and 
I call this work the work of necessity because it can 
not be otherwise. 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 149 

Things must be as they are, because the hidden causes 
of nature make them as they are. 

Invisible, inevitable laws govern creation, acting 
through men as well as things, and the only murmur 
in the wide domain of creation that breathes an utter- 
ance questioning nature's perfect jurisdiction is from 
vain and fragile man, who declares he do n't, but really 
does, obey nature's laws perfectly, from the cradle to the 
grave ; and he obeys them because he must, because he 
is held in the arms of necessity forever. Yes, he obeys 
them from the fact it was, as before said, in the plan of 
Deity that he should not only obey them, but that he 
should necessarily and unavoidably violate them in order 
that he might learn them — that he might learn wis- 
dom — that he might learn his own weakness and de- 
pendence ; hence to be induced to feel for others. In- 
deed, it appears that suffering and toil is the price of 
our tuition and happiness; for he who infringes laws 
must suffer in proportion to the transgression. 

He who will not, or can not, read and think for himself 
is not allowed to progress much in wisdom — is not 
allowed to enjoy the rich blessings derived from that 
source ; and he who will not toil to secure the comforts 
of life shall not eat. 

Again, men, like the planets, are controlled and kept 
in their orbits or spheres by the two great and primary 
forces, attraction and repulsion ; and to illustrate this 
proposition further, I will suppose two persons, A. and B. 
The former is reputed the best man in town, and the 
latter the worst one. But these two men wield an 
equal influence in promoting the good of society; be- 



150 A TREATISE ON THE 

cause A. (best class) invites, attracts the youth and the 
aged to rise up toward him; while B. (lowest class) 
with equal force repulses them toward first class — from 
vice and crime — from evil. Yet this hateful thing 
called evil has availed as much in making us what we 
are as good has done ; from the fact we are not only 
attracted, but driven to the good, to justice and fair 
dealing, from the fear of evil — from the fear of suffering. 

Suppose, again, that C. and D. wish to move a lot of 
horses to a distant pasture, but they (like most men) 
will not toil (only) nor yet drive ; therefore, C. goes 
ahead with a bunch of fodder and calls — attracts — while 
D. follows after, whip in hand, and drives — repulses. 
And thus the object is attained, and thus do all men, from 
necessity , strictly obey nature's laws. 

And lastly, as a further illustration on this point, I 
will here draw a line and place E. and F. at the center 
of it. Now E. goes off to the right, obeys law, and 
does well. P. goes to the left, disobeys law, and suffers 
for it; but, nevertheless, does well too — well for himself, 
as he thereby learns law — learns to do so no more; and 
well for his neighbors, because it is from other people's 
blunders and misfortunes that we learn our best les- 
sons — learn caution — learn how to avoid troubles and 
ruin. 

Yes, it is mostly from this suffering (for crime) and 
from such lessons that we learn our relations and obli- 
gations to other men — learn our own ignorance and 
nothingness — learn humility and sympathy ; and but for 
such agencies, we would be destitute of wisdom, jus- 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 151 

tice, and humanity — would not be fit to live on the 
earth. 

Hence I have shown that we do really obey nature's 
laws perfectly from the cradle to the grave ; that all our 
acts are in harmony with her laws, and promote, sooner 
or later, our own best interest, and the good of others. 

Again, every man would be rich and famous ; but of 
necessity almost every one is poor and without fame. 

No man would go a begging, but necessity often 
compels men to beg ; because they are, in their physical 
and social capacity, placed under the rigid law of ne- 
cessity, both in things external and in their actions; but 
to themselves they seem to be free, and they are free to 
act according to the motives and forces which determine 
their choice. 

Man is held by the laws of nature in every deed he 
does, just as surely and securely as he is held down to 
the ground by the weight of his body — by law of gravi- 
tation; yet, notwithstanding, he is, for his own best 
interest, amenable to all the laws of his being and of the 
community; for pain and woe are the natural and 
necessary concomitants incident to their infringement. 

Oppression and injustice are rife in the land, not be- 
cause men are willing them to be, but because they must 
be. Inhuman deeds, merciless slaughter, universal mur- 
der, pains and woe unmeasured, human hands deal out 
to human beings. Why? Not because of human will, 
but because of unavoidable, inevitable necessity. (A 
fatal necessity sports with the lot of mortals.) 

All acts, whether they are called natural or unnatural, 
are the lawful productions of nature ; and all produc- 



152 A TREATISE ON THE 

tions are natural, whether they are called unnatural or 
artificial. 

There is no instinct, no desire, no belief, no unbelief? 
no love, no hate, no persuasion, which does not hold a 
place in nature's bosom. There are no acts which men 
and women do that are not done in nature, and by na- 
ture's inflexible workings. All acts are natural, and 
being natural, are unavoidable, are a necessity; and a 
necessity is something above the power of human voli- 
tion and human action; hence man, in all his acts, is 
held in the arms of necessity forever. 

Are not tornadoes and earthquakes, excessive rains, 
excessive droughts, etc., etc., above and beyond the con- 
trol of human will ? If they are not, why are they not 
averted? 

Are not human wars that prostrate human successes, 
prosperity, and happiness — that desolate so many happy 
homes, and carry agony to every hearth — above human 
control ? If they are not, why are they are not avoided? 

Are not all the hateful things of life above the power 
of human volition to control? If not, why are there 
so many in the world ? The answer is, because they 
are above the power of man to control; hence what- 
ever is, is a necessity, or else things would not be. 

Some say that joy and happiness, and all the lovely 
things of life, come to us because we desire them ; be- 
cause our volition leads us to do that which commands 
them. 

They may think so, and no doubt it appears so to 
those who have not carefully examined the subject; but 
they are, nevertheless, of actual necessity, and not the 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 153 

fruits of human will, because they come of a power 
that is back of and superior to human will. 

And thus, too, is man, in all his joy and prosperity, as 
well as in all his adversity, held in the arms of necessity 
forever — acting only as he is acted upon. 

Then, what instruction may be derived from the fore- 
going illustrations? Nothing of an immoral or irrelig- 
ious nature, I am sure, for if such be man, as it surely 
is, we should desire, above all other considerations, to 
learn the fact, that we may the better know how to 
train him — how to respect his opinions and preju- 
dices — how to make the proper allowance for his igno- 
rance and misgivings — how to elevate and refine him, 
and how to truly christianize him. But if such be not 
man, certainly our learned ones will be kind enough to 
explode my sophistry that the good people may suffer 
no serious violence. 

JSTow, having gone through with my arguments, and 
clearly proven, as I think, the doctrine contained in the 
above caption, will come to a close, and with the confi- 
dence that no honest and reflecting man will accuse me 
of tolerating immorality or crime; for I say again, as I 
have before said in this essay, that no person can find a 
true and lasting interest in doing a wrong act — that 
transgression and suffering are inseparable — that all our 
debts of sin must be settled by the first to the fourth 
generations, and that there can not be any possible escape 
this side of the grave. 



154 



A TREATISE ON THE 



CHAPTER XV. 

HIS CONFLICTING ELEMENTS AND OPPOSING FORCES HARMO- 
NIZED. 

' May we learn to kindly disclaim 
- The narrow view, the selfish aim; 
And with a manly zeal embrace 
Wbate'er is friendly to our race. ,, 

Man has ever been and now is a restless, selfish, in- 
consistent, and illiberal being, finding fault with and 
persecuting his fellow-men for mere imaginary wrongs; 
finding fault with all his surroundings, with the physi- 
cal elements, and even with the God who made him. 
Yet, 

11 Did we but strive to make the best 

Of troubles that befall us, 
Instead of meeting cares half way, 

They would not so appall us. 
Earth has a spell for loving hearts, 

Why should we seek to break it ? 
Let 's scatter flowers instead of thorns— 

The world is what we make it. 

" If truth, and love, and gentle words, 

"We took the pains to nourish, 
The seeds of discontent would die, 

And peace and comfort flourish. 
Oh ! has not each some kindly thought ? 

Then let 's at once awake it, 
Believing that, for good or ill, 

The world is what we make it ?" 



INTELLECTUAL MOKAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 155 

Nor is it surprising that he so unwisely dep rts him- 
self, from the fact he is always looking at the dark side 
of everything — gazing on the one side of the picture, 
too lazy or too self-righteous and self-opinionated to 
even turn it over where he could see his neighbor as 
good as himself, and behold beauty, justice, benevolence, 
and harmony in all nature's works. 

But everything must, as before said, have its oppo- 
site ; the one implies and demands the other, producing 
necessary and endless contrasts, from which source we 
derive the greater part of our information. There is, the 
world over, just as much cold as heat ; as much winter as 
summer ; as much darkness as light ; as much good as 
evil, and no more on the greater average, for every- 
thing in nature and in morals strives for and tends to 
the great and universal law of equilibrium. 

The attainment and maintenance of this (health) 
equilibrium is man's ultimate and highest moral and 
social zenith ; for his wisdom can not organize and per- 
petuate a state of society which will not necessarily and 
unavoidably carry along with it a certain amount of 
evil as well as good. 

Then the great object or desideratum should be to 
see that the good shall greatly preponderate — that good 
shall hold the positive, and evil the negative. 

This being, perhaps, more than communities generally 
do — as much as nature's physical elements have ever done — 
then why should we transient and imbecile mortals ex- 
pect, in the enjoyment of our moral and social elements, 
to transcend in perfection the great I AM, who holds, 
as it were, in the palm of His hand millions oi inhabited 



156 A TREATISE ON THE 

worlds. "We can do as well without the calm as with- 
out the storm; as well without life as without death; 
and as well without good as without evil. 

This evil is negative or undeveloped good;* it is a 
condition, force, or agency in nature, whose office it is 
to bring about, sooner or later, necessary results, being 
co-existent and equally necessary! with good, because 
we everywhere meet with evil incidently connected 
with agencies whose predominate and ultimate effects 
are beneficial. Indeed, everything we can think of is 
necessary. Yea, all institutions, theories, and creeds, 
either civil or religious, are good and useful in their 
day — the best that could be in their time devised and 
properly appreciated or enioved ; but the world is pro- 
gressing. 

And yet, further, there is just as much universal in- 
telligence and felicity produced from the one opposite 
as from the other, and both being necessary for the puri- 
fication and equalization of our natural, moral, social, 
and religious elements — necessary for our perpetuation, 
happiness, and proper development; it requiring more 
or less of everything the mind can conceive, and twenty 
thousand and one things, ideas, and principles not yet 
discovered, to properly enlarge and develop the human 
mind. 

Hence it is obvious that all classes of men, conditions, 
doctrines, creeds, goods and evils, wet and cold days, 
floods and storms, wars and rebellions, sickness and pre- 
mature deaths, with all other troubles, trials, and afflic- 
tions, incident to human life, are (in their proper time 

*Grenesis, chapter 2, verse 17. f Isaiah, chapter 45, verse 7. 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 157 

and degree) highly beneficial to excite and promote our 
humanity and sympathy, our intelligence, happiness, and 
longevity. Consequently, the thing or principle called 
evil is nothing more at last than negative or undevel- 
oped good or bad, but which is always present (" when 
I would do good, evil is present with me "*), influencing 
or controlling the actions of men. 

That all flowers, bitter and sweet, contain more or 
less of honey ; and that when we shall be philosophers 
enough to become, as it were, honey-bees, capable of 
extracting good, present or future, from all circumstances, 
creeds, and theories, then, and not until then, shall we 
ever enjoy our full measure of happiness. 

Therefore, according to common sense, experience, 
and sound philosophy, there can not be in all nature 
anything wrong — all things, men, and circumstances 
being about as we should now expect them. Hence 
whatever is, is necessary. 

And not only necessary in nature, but also in human 
society ; yet whatever is in society can not always be 
right or expedient, for it can not be morally right for one 
man to defraud another It was certainly wrong for 
S. A. Douglas and his co-workers to tear down the 
Missouri restriction, but it was highly necessary in 
order to arouse, to wake up, the then sleeping and ser- 
vile North to a sense of her danger. Yea, even the 
outrages committed upon patriotic Kansas were very 
necessary to teach the people, both North and South, 
what slavery really was, what it could do, and what it 
would do — necessary to work up, to bring about the 

*Eomans, chapter 7, vci^e 21. 



158 A TREATISE ON THE 

destruction of the " divine institution ;" and, conse- 
quently, to create a greater affinity and affiliation be- 
tween the people of the two geographical sections — to 
produce a unity of feeling, sentiment, and interest be- 
tween them— to enable this government to take a high 
position among the first nations of the earth. 

To illustrate: The terms, right and wrong, good and 
evil, can only be defined and known by the following 
standards, viz : All acts which are done in obedience to 
laws should be called right, and vice versa. 

The terms, good and evil, are merely relative — the 
same as up and down ; up at one time, being down at 
another, and vice versa. But all these acts which are 
necessary and fitly producing the greatest good to the 
greatest number, preset or future, m&j be called good or 
necessary, and vice versa. For instance, the wicked act 
of Bonaparte in usurping the throne of Spain was 
the necessary and indirect cause of Mexico and South 
America becoming free republics. 

And from the further consideration : If there were 
no dishonest men, there could be no honest ones ; if 
there was no vice, there could be no virtue; if there 
was no slavery, there could be no freedom; if there was 
no darkness, there could be no light; and if there was 
no suffering, there could be no happiness, etc. 

Therefore, how can we judge of the one thing only 
when contrasted with the other — with its opposite ? 
How can we know the excellent but by contrasting it 
with the faulty ? And this contrast is also one of the 
great sources of intelligence and pleasure. 

Is not the pleasure of warmth derived from the pre- 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN, 159 

vious cold? Could we enjoy food but for the previous 
hunger, or the cooling fountain but for the foregoing 
thirst ? 

Mankind know of no method of appropriating, or 
even of understanding any advantage or happiness, but 
by contrasting it with its opposite state or quality. The 
extremes only, long continued, appear to me as evils. 

All these opposites are merely so many contrasts 
necessary to create variety, orders, and distinctions, 
making a world adapted to the wants and best interests 
of its inhabitants. 

Then, worthy readers, would you have one endless 
sameness throughout creation ? No variety and peculi- 
arity, no difference in size or forms, no good, no evil, 
no sweet, no sour, no flowers, no thorns, no light, no 
darkness ? 

No ignorance to overcome with wisdom ? 

No poverty to overcome with plenty? 

No imperfection to transcend, and 

No suffering to teach the worth of happiness ? 

And if we had no wars, those omnipotent teachers and 
regulators, how could we estimate the great worth of 
peace, or what would prompt us to avoid strife and 
contention ; and when would blind and avaricious man 
let go his hold on his fellow-man, and render unto 
Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and when would he 
willingly progress, although it is a law of nature that he 
shall progress (slowly) willing or not ? Yes, he shall pro- 
gress willing or not. And is it not far better that man 
should improve than that he should stand still at an 



160 A TREATISE ON THE 

unvarying point of morals and intelligence ? I should 
decide in favor of improvement, considering progression, 
especially in intellectual acquirements, as the greatest 
source of pleasure which human life is capable of. 

Now if this be so, imperfection and ignorance are 
necessary conditions ; hence if we advance (as we must) 
on a scale, we have to commence from the lower end 
of it. 

If we progress in knowledge, we must start from ig- 
norance. If we increase in wisdom, there must have 
been a time of folly. And these lower conditions must 
have been attended with their consequences ; and these 
consequences were the very stimulating causes of prog- 
ress subsequently made, and even furnished the zest to 
its high enjoyment. 

Indeed, I am quite unable to see how those imperfec- 
tions could exist without their troublesome and painful 
consequences; or, indeed, what would be the advan- 
tages of improvement or progress but for these troubles 
and pains? 

It is to avoid them that we seek improvement ; that 
we strive after knowledge and perfection; in order 
that we may deliver ourselves from calamity and in- 
crease our happiness. This is the nature of all im- 
provement. 

Until railroads were invented, we could only travel 
by less desirable conveyances. Until printing was in- 
vented, we could not enjoy its advantages. 

The steam engine was originally imperfect, and the 
consequences of that imperfection existed and stimu- 
lated to improvements; and but for tho3e troubles, mis- 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 161 

haps, and pecuniary losses consequent upon this imper- 
fection, there never would have been any improvement; 
hence those losses to property and life, vexations, etc., 
were necessary evils — was negative or undeveloped 
good. 

But as there are opposing forces and warring elements 
throughout all nature, so there are and needs to be in 
society; indeed, our social and religious institutions 
could not be perpetuated without approbation and 
disapprobation, merit and demerit, rewards and chas- 
tisements, and all those grades and distinctions now 
existing — it being only the abuses and excesses of our 
manifold blessings, of those grades and distinctions, 
goods and evils, vices and virtues, etc., about which 
the writer is complaining ; for the greatest evils, as wars 
and rebellions, generally bring about among peoples and 
nations the rich blessings of emancipation, progression, 
justice, and equality. 

Now, if we had no ignorance and imperfection to 
transcend, what use would we have for all our books, 
teachers, schools, and journals — for all our fine works 
on natural and moral philosophy — our colleges, bibles, 
preachers, etc., etc.? None at all. 

If we had no poverty to overcome, what would excite 
us to industry, economy, emulation, and invention ? 
And what would we be doing ? We would, the most of 
us, if possible, be reveling in dissipation and crime — 
would be racing around day and night, annoying all 
civil and decent people; running in debt wherever 
credit could be found, hanging on us the richest cos- 
tumes, riding in fine carriages, steamboats, and train 



162 A TKEATISE ON THE 

coaches, gambling, drinking, etc., etc. In short, we 
would just go wild, and never find a stopping place 
until laid under the sod. Then a very large majority 
of the citizens of Thorntown and elsewhere should feel 
thankful that they are not rich — that they have no 
wealthy and indulgent parents to lean on — that they 
have to save themselves — that they must labor steadily or 
starve. 

If we had no suffering from ill health and from other 
causes, how could we appreciate the blessings of life? 
"What would excite in us benevolence and humanity for 
others in affliction, and what would there be to restrain 
us from unbounded licentiousness ? 

Yea, even our highest virtues, as benevolence and 
charity, when carried to certain excesses, produce great 
and lasting trouble and miseries. 

And after we all shall have labored diligently and 
unitedly in suppressing the troubles and evils of society, 
as we should do, still there will remain enough and too 
much disorder and crime. We only need a more healthy 
equilibrium, but which never can be attained until soci- 
ety shall become more generally enlightened ; never 
until the masses shall acquire self-reliance and moral 
courage enough to think and act for themselves upon 
all subjects and occasions; and hence to govern them- 
selves more by natural laws, reason, and common sense. 

All the above-named opposites, opposing forces, char- 
acters, and peculiarities are in accordance with nature, 
and necessary to constitute a harmonious whole ; pro- 
ducing all those grades, distinctions, merits and demer- 
its now existing in society, without which we could 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 163 

have nothing to stimulate us to industry, virtue, honor, 
or greatness. 

No, not even the terms or ideas of good and evil, 
honest and dishonest, wise and unwise, noble and ig- 
noble, could ever have entered the mind of man. 

Hence ignorance, barbarity, and extinction would 
have been the inevitable doom of our tender race. 

Now having gone through with my arguments under 
the various captions will come to a close, and leave the 
subject to abler pens that can treat it in a more becom- 
ing and scientific manner; particularly as I am well 
convinced that the reading public is not now, as a gen- 
eral thing, prepared to indorse many propositions or 
doctrines contained in this essay. But we should not 
expect to enjoy the fruit immediately after sowing the 
seed — not before it has time to mature ; because society 
is progressing, the dark fogs will be dissipated, a 
greater light and salvation is coming, and it is but a 
poor philosopher who is not willing to wait — to wait 
fifty or a hundred years. 

Then can we not learn, from the foregoing illustra- 
tions, to let our reason and intuition be the rule of our 
conduct, to carefully examine both sides of every sub- 
ject, to turn the picture over and not forever look on 
the dark side of everything ; to respect the opinions of 
our neighbors ; and hence to cease our intemperate and 
unholy proscriptions and persecutions; to reconcile our- 
selves with the world as we now find it; to make peace 
with all mankind; to enjoy life under all circunstances ; 
and finally to conclude, that — 



164 A TREATISE ON THE 

"The world goes round and round, 
And the genial seasons run; 
And ever the right comes uppermost, 
And ever is justice done." 

The following verses might be a further stimulus 
and prop to many of those philosophers who are capa- 
ble of harmonizing their conflicting elements and op- 
posing forces, to the end that they be enabled to enjoy 
life under all circumstances : 

"I love the man who well can bear 
Misfortune's angry frown; 
I love the soul that spurns despair, 
Though all his friends have flown. 

"Hove the soul so nobly proud, 
That misery can not blight; 
The soul that spurns the jeering crowd, 
And sternly claims bis right. 

"I love that fortitude refined, 
"Which sorrow can not break ; 
I love that strength of soul and mind, 
No earthly power can break. 

" I love the man that scorns to bend 
Beneath affliction's blast; 
"Whose soul stoops not to foe or friend, 
Bound to truth till the last." 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 165 



PART III. 



CHAPTER I. 

POSITION AND PRIVILEGE OF TRUTH SPEAKERS. 

It seems to me there are three principal fundamental 
forms of the moral life, namely: active humanity, in- 
dustry in acquiring knowledge, and honesty in impart- 
ing what we know. It is one of the highest duties of 
man to learn to know himself, and, secondly, to allow 
himself to be known ; but the contending and false sys- 
tems of the world are a great hinderance to simplicity 
of character and moral growth. The mathematician, 
the linguist, the geologist, the chemist, may be very 
wise in those matters which they have studied, but yet 
very bad moralists, and wholly incompetent to govern 
and educate man. The power to govern is in the 
knowledge of the nature of the thing governed. The 
mathematician may be a very bad reasoner on physio- 
logical matters, and the linguist no wiser for the ability 
to utter the same idea in several languages. If we 
would regulate our clock, we apply to a clock-maker; 
if we would regulate a steam-engine, we apply to the 
engineer; if we would cure a disease, we send for the 



166 A TREATISE ON THE 

physician ; but if we would develop man's nature, and 
learn how to regulate his conduct, both as an individ- 
ual and a member of society, would we send to Cam- 
bridge for a mathematician, or to Oxford for a linguist ? 
" Man knows no more than he has observed ;" but whose 
profession is it to observe the laws of man's nature and 
development? Physicians follow systems, take up their 
subjects only in parts; and to .this day are disputing 
about the most ordinary diseases and the right method 
of cure, both as regards the physical conditions and 
the required phenomena. The homeopathic law — that 
"like cures like" — is doubtless a great truth, but cer- 
tainly not the only principle of cure — nor of universal 
application. It is painful to see how every fresh appli- 
cation of a principle is twisted into a system — becomes 
a dogma, and hangs like a log about men's heels. 

Physicians, again, remain ignorant of the most im- 
portant facts in physiology, not clearly recognizing the 
principle that every part of a subject must be studied 
by itself, and also in relation to the whole, and the 
whole again in relation to a class of truths and to uni- 
versal nature. 

The body can not be understood when studied as a 
matter separate from its phenomenon, mind; nor mind 
irrespective of physical conditions, causes, and laws. 
The metaphysician, again, meditates upon his sensa- 
tions and their sequence, and sees but in part, and very 
imperfectly, strangely unaware of the delusions to 
which he is subject; but could he even perceive cor- 
rectly the whole phenomena of his thoughts and their 
order of development, it would only be like studying 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 167 

his bodily constitution by looking at himself in a glass ; 
and he could tell us no more about the mind's action, 
the difference of men and the laws and causes of devel- 
opment, than the old Arab in the village can tell you in 
regard to medicine and the true nature and cause of 
diseases; and the metaphysician's mind is prejudiced 
and stuffed up by learning and abstract thought, and 
requires as much free air and ventilation as the Arab's 
cottage, and cleared of the cobwebs, will have to com- 
mence study afresh after another method. Man is the 
result of organization, the external circumstances act- 
ing upon this, and the force of knowledge. Plato was 
fully impressed with this, and his only hope for man 
was in producing good organizations, which were to be 
trained and developed under the most favorable circum- 
stances; the whole to be regulated by a pure and prac- 
tical morality and correct reasoning as a basis. 

He w^ould have the best men to govern, and would 
not allow the legislator to accumulate wealth or to 
marry; but would have his mind left as free as possible 
from all selfish considerations and temptations, from 
all influences likely to damage his love of truth, his 
honesty or desire for the general good. 

And is it not the duty of every man to endeavor, 
above every other consideration, to know himself and 
the origin of his opinions ; and hence to know his 
neighbor? "Know thyself," was the wise saying of 
Thales. " Bear and forbear," the constant admonition 
of Epictetus. In the confusion of opinions w T hich now 
exist, and which seems likely to increase, I see no hope 
but in a thorough investigation of man's nature, the 



168 A TREATISE ON THE 

laws of his development, and the cause and origin of 
the opinions which he holds, and which men quarrel 
about, not seeing that their opinions are voluntary, and 
that, consequently, it is as great folly to quarrel about 
our opinions as about the shape of our different noses. 

But I hear on every hand that men want the courage 
to speak the truth; that those who do declare their 
honest and full convictions often suffer in their worldly 
affairs, and find themselves stigmatized by the unthink- 
ing and self-righteous. This, I fear, is but too true ; 
and which exhibits the demoralizing influence of our 
present systems of education. But surely to utter the 
truth that is within us dispassionately, and in pure 
affection, and for the general good, is most worthy of a 
good nature and as natural as the desire of freedom 
and the growth of beauty. To an honest mind, the 
courage would seem to be in the daring to secrete the 
truth, and to oppose the dictates of conscience and the 
free action of the mind. 

Shall we be content to receive all the benefits of life, 
delighting in the free developing and beauty of nature, 
while we remain ourselves under a mask, and standing 
there a conscious criminal in the midst? For to dis- 
guise or deny what is true, is to live a lie — is to live a lie — 
being brave toward right and a coward toward men. 
But there are many persons, and most respectable, 
good, and pious persons, too, who have no faith in 
knowledge; in that faith of faiths, that rest for hope, 
that solace of grief; in that which so surely contributes 
to peace and peace of mind, to true wisdom and good 
works. And these persons talk of dangerous truths, as 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAX. 1G9 

if all the dangers did not come from the side of igno- 
rance and error; or as if any one truth could be opposed 
to Tiny other truth, or to any system or faith founded 
on that which is true. 

But no wise man will desire that any one thing he 
true in perference to another, nor that nature should 
stand still for his special gratification; and when he is 
in error will be' most thankful for correction, and 
receive the news as gladly as if he had discovered a 
new truth. 'Nov must we forget that all conditions of 
things and opinions are right or necessary, and the best 
they can be in the time in which they exist — having 
their place in the plan of nature's progressive develop- 
ment. Again, that evil to individuals is universal good, 
and the calamities of life the occasion for magnanimity 
and the highest virtues. 

Pain or pleasure, good or evil report, will follow as 
a consequence of our acts, but must never be the 
reason or motive of action; and men must be admon- 
ished that the recognition of philosophical necessity, or 
the sense of universal law, will not, as some suppose, 
set men loose from restraint to indulge their passions 
and evil desires. 

These good people seem strangely possessed with no- 
tions of man's innate wickedness, forgetting that he 
has no mental attribute, appetite, or passion which is 
not indispensably necessary to his well-being wi en 
properly controlled and directed by intelligence. 

But the reverse will be the fact; for a knowledge of the 
cause will give a reason for exertion and a confidence 
they did not possess before — will present a means to an 



170 A TREATISE ONTHE 

end, and induce the application, acknowledging, in 
practice, a belief in moral results from sufficing causes. 
In a strange confusion of ideas, they neglect true fun- 
damental causes and the study of the laws of man's 
nature and development, and even deny the existence 
of such laws. But none are to blame, though so many 
are in error; in error from want of knowledge and a 
clear unbiased mind, and a right method of inquiry. 
Nevertheless, we and kind must long continue to be 
injured in power and in peace by the operation of past 
ignorance, which has mournfully impaired the condi- 
tions of human life ; but the emancipation which may 
be obtained is already precious beyond all estimate. 
Ignorant as we yet are, hardly able yet (even the wisest 
of men) to snatch a glimpse of the workings of nature, 
or to form a conception of the existence of law^; obvi- 
ous, as it is, that our condition is merely that of infant- 
waking upon the world of existence, the privilege of 
freedom, as far as we are now able to go, is quite ines- 
timable. What a field it opens! "What a prospect of 
ever-growing enjoyment to succeeding generations, in 
the development of the universe, under their contem- 
plation! If we are daily sensible of the enjoyment of 
that " perpetual spring of fresh ideas," what must be the 
privilege of future generations, who shall, at the same 
time, be more naturally free to learn and find them- 
selves in a bright noonday season of inquiry! It is 
truly cheering to think of. If we feel a contentment in 
our own lot, which must be sound, because it is derived 
from no special administration of our affairs, but from 
the impartial and necessary operations of nature, we 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 171 

can not but feel, for the same reasons, a new exhilara- 
tion on account of the unborn millions who will, ages 
hence, enter upon existence on better terms than those 
on which we hold it — contented as we are with our 
share of the good and the evil of human life. 

It is a pleasant thing to have a daily purpose of rais- 
ing and disciplining ourselves for no end of selfish pur- 
chase or ransom, but from the instinctive tendency to 
mental and moral health. It is a pleasant thing to be 
free from all arbitrary restraint in ministering to the 
good, great or small, of any who are about us. But 
what a thing it is to have, over and above all this, the 
conception of a future time, when all discipline will 
consist in a sweet and joyful surrender to nature, and 
all the forces of the universe will combine to lift man 
above his sorrows, to expand his old faculties and elicit 
new, and to endow him at once with all the good ob- 
tained by former generations, together with new acces- 
sions far beyond the compass of our thought! Nothing 
short of this seems to be the prospect of our race ; and 
does it not shed back a light to our very feet, not only 
on high occasions of intercourse or meditation, but 
everyday? Atkinson, F. G-. S. 

TRUTH. 

1 Fair Truth ! for thee alone we seek ! 
Friend to the wise, supporter to the weak ; 
Prom thee we learn whate'er is wise and just; 
Evils to reject, professions to distrust, 
Forms to despise, pretensions to deride, 
And following thee, to follow naught beside." 



172 A TREATISE ON THE 



CHAPTER II. 

ORIGIN AND NATURE OF GOVERNMENT OF SOCIETY. 

Concerning the origin of government various opinions 
have been held by philosophers. Some have regarded it 
as an extension of parental authority; others, as founded 
on compact between rulers and their subjects; while 
others give it a divine origin, and regard kings as the 
delegates of heaven, having a right to govern independ- 
ently of the people. All these views appear unsound, 
for government arises directly from faculties inherent 
in human nature. Man is impelled by innate dispo- 
sitions to live in society; he has a tendency to respect 
and obey those whom he considers his superiors ; there 
is in him likewise a faculty which prompts individuals 
to assume authority and exact obedience; and from 
these natural tendencies government arises without any 
comprehensive design or compact whatever. In rude 
ages and nations, men with large active brains and con- 
siderable self-esteem and love of approbation would 
naturally take the lead, and be willingly obeyed by per- 
sons of feebler character. 

This has been universally observed among children 
in all ages; and rationally viewed, government is the 
delegation to one or a few individuals of the power and 
authority of the nation, to be employed for the general 
good; and the only moral foundation of it is the general 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 173 

consent of the people who are to be governed. The 
notion of right in any one man, or class of men, to rule 
their neighbors for their own pleasure or advantage, 
against the inclination or contrary to the welfare of the 
subjects generally, is totally at variance with common 
sense, reason, and justice. This, however, does not 
imply that each individual is authorized to resist the 
government when it is disagreeable to his taste. 

Before he can lawfully oppose or successfully improve 
it, he must succeed in convincing a large number of his 
fellow-subjects of its imperfections, this being necessary 
to secure their co-operation in providing a remedy, and 
till this be done he ought to continue his obedieDce. As 
soon as the evil becomes generally perceived, and a 
desire for its removal pervades the public mind, the 
amendment may easily be effected. Those who attempt 
to bring about changes, however beneficial, of public 
institutions, without a preparation of the public mind, 
encounter the hazard of being entirely baffled by the 
force of ancient prejudices and superstitions Nor is 
this an unwise arrangement of nature; for pure, moral 
institutions can not flourish unless the morality and in- 
telligence of the people be correspondingly high; and 
hence improvements, even if accomplished before this 
condition be realized, would be speedily lost. 

The grand aims of government are to secure the in- 
dependence and freedom of the nation. A nation is 
independent when it is under the dominion of no for- 
eign power; and a people are free when each individual 
of the state is completely protected, by just laws, from all 
arbitrary interference with his life, liberty, and property 



174 A TREATISE ON THE 

by his own government and his fellow-subjects. The 
history of the world shows that some nations live habitu- 
ally under subjection to foreign powers; that other 
nations are independent but not free; and that only a 
very few, if any, enjoy alike freedom and independence. 
Of course, the best condition of a nation is when it is 
free as well as independent — that is, when it owns no 
master abroad, and when each individual acknowledges 
no master at home except laws consented to by the ma- 
jority of the people and magistrates, who are themselves 
subject to the laws and merely their interpreters and 
administrators. Now, before a nation can attain this 
form of government, they must possess not only the 
qualities necessary for independence, but moral and in- 
tellectual gifts much higher than any which mere inde- 
pendence requires. 

The love of justice must have become so prevalent, 
that no individual or limited number of individuals 
can muster followers sufficient to place himself or them- 
selves above the rest. The community in general must 
be so far enlightened that they shall perceive the inev- 
itable tendency of individuals to abuse unlimited power, 
and they must have so much of devotion to the general 
good as to feel disposed, by a general movement, when 
necessary, to resist and baffle all attempts at acquiring 
such dominion. As individuals, moreover, they must 
be, in general, moderate and just in their own ambition, 
and ready to yield to others all the political enjoyments 
and advantages which they claim for themselves. 

Liberty, in short, can never exist except where intel- 
ligence and morality prevail among the great body of 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 175 

the nation to such an extent as to render them capable 
of restraining their own propensities within the limits 
of reason, and of pursuing objects related to the general 
welfare of the state. 

Other philosophers again have contended that liberty 
consists in all men having the right to act as they may 
see fit, without any restraint or control whatever, except 
from the laws of nature. N"ow, I admit that a rule of 
this kind might answer in very many cases, yet, under 
all the* circumstances in which we find people placed, it 
certainly would be a very unsafe one. There are, indeed, 
many men who go along as straight as a die, year after 
year, and behave correctly in all things, who are " a law 
unto themselves," and probably would be even if there 
were no statute laws; but, as there are so many people 
who go crooked and injure their neighbors, they must 
be restrained by law, and I presume it is on account of 
such that laws are made. Hence, I say that civil liberty, 
for people living in a state of society, is much better ; 
that is, natural liberty so far abridged and restrained as 
is necessary and expedient for the safety and interest of 
the society, state, or nation. I hold that people have a 
right to do just as they please, provided they do not 
interfere w T ith the rights of others ; but when they do, 
their liberty, so far, should be stopped. 

No man has the liberty, or rather he ought not to 
have liberty, to deprive another man of his liberty, his 
property, or of any of his personal rights. We have 
the right, for instance, to stay away from a church on 
Sunday, if we see fit; but we have no right to forcibly 



176 A TREATISE ON THE 

prevent our neighbor from attending such a place if lie 
is so inclined. 

As I have said before, there should be no liberty to 
injure or oppress our fellow-men, for this is wrong, un- 
just, and tyrannical; when he does this, the public good 
requires that his liberty be taken from him; because 
society must, above all earthly considerations, *be main- 
tained, particularly as man can subsist only in society, 
and was by nature adapted for that situation. 

All the members of society stand in need of each 
other's assistance, and are likewise exposed to mutual 
injuries; but where the necessary assistance is recipro- 
cally afforded from love, from gratitude, from friend- 
ship and esteem, the society flourishes and is happy; all 
the different members of it being bound together by the 
agreeable bands of love and affection, and are, as it 
were, drawn to one common center of mutual good 
offices. 

But though the necessary assistance should not be 
afforded from such generous and disinterested motives, 
though among the different members of the society 
there should be no mutual love and affection, the society, 
though less happy and agreeable, will not necessarily be 
dissolved, for it may subsist among different men, as 
among different merchants, from a sense of justice and 
utility, without any mutual love and affection; and 
though no man in it should owe any obligation, or be 
bound in gratitude to any other, it may still be upheld 
by the laws of necessity — by a mercenary exchange of 
good offices according to an agreed valuation. 

Society, however, can not live among those who are 



INTELLECTUAL, MOKAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 177 

at all times ready to hurt and injure one another, for 
the moment that injury begins, the moment that mutual 
resentment and animosity takes place, all the bands of 
it are broken asunder, and the different members of 
which it consisted are, as it were, dissipated and scat- 
tered abroad by the violence and opposition of their 
discordant affections. If there is any society among 
robbers and murderers, they must, at least, according to 
the trite observation, abstain from robbing one another. 
Beneficence, therefore, is less essential to the existence 
of society than justice, because it may subsist, though 
not in the most comfortable state, without beneficence ; 
but the prevalence of injustice must utterly destroy it. 

Justice, therefore, is the main pillar that upholds the 
whole edifice, for if it be removed, the great, the im- 
mense fabric, which, to raise and support, seems in this 
world, if I ma}^ say so, to have been the peculiar and 
darling care of nature, must in a moment crumble into 
atoms. 

In order to enforce the observation of justice, there- 
fore, nature has implanted in the human breast that 
consciousness of ill desert, those dreads of merited pun- 
ishment which attend upon its violation, as the great 
safeguards of the association of mankind, to protect 
the weak, to curb the violent, and to chastise the guilty. 
Men, though naturally sympathetic, feel so little for 
another with whom they have no particular connec- 
tion, in comparison of what they feel for themselves; 
the misery of one who is merely their fellow-creature 
is of so little importance to them in comparison even of 
a small conveniency of their own ; they have it so much 



173 A TREATISE ON THE 

in their power to hurt him, and may have so many 
temptations to do so, that if this principle did not stand 
up within them in his defense and overawe them into a 
respect for his innocence, they would, like wild beasts, 
be at all times ready to fly upon him, and a man w T ould 
enter an assembly of men as he enters a den of lions. 

"When will the world learn wisdom by the past and 
hope for the future, and be ashamed and humble when 
it needs knowledge? Only, I think, when the phi- 
losophy of man and mind is developed and admitted as 
a science by the people generally 

In every part of the universe we observe means ad- 
justed with the nicest artifice to the ends which they 
are intended to produce; and in the mechanism of a 
plant or animal body, admire how everything is con- 
trived for advancing the two great purposes of nature, 
the support of the individual and the propagation of 
the species. But in these, and in all such objects, we 
still distinguish the efficient from the final cause of 
their several motions and organizations. The digestion 
of the food, the circulation of the blood, and the secre- 
tion of the several juices which are drawn from it, are 
operations, all of them necessary for the great purposes 
of animal life. Yet we never endeavor to account for 
them from those purposes as from their efficient causes, 
nor imagine that the blood circulates, or that the food 
digests of its own accord, and with a view or intention 
to the purposes of circulation or of digestion. The 
wheels of the watch are all admirably adjusted to the 
end for which it was made, the pointing of the hour; 
and all their various motions conspire in the nicest 



179 

manner to produce this effect. If they were endowed 
with a desire and intention to produce it, they could 
not do it better; yet we never ascribe any such desire 
or intention to them, but to the watch-maker; and we 
know that they are put into motion by a spring, which 
intends the effect it produces as little as they do. 

Hence, it is clear that society arises directly from 
faculties inherited in human nature; and that man can 
not subsist only in communities, and was by nature 
fitted for such a condition. 

As society can not long exist unless the laws of jus- 
tice are tolerably observed — as no social intercourse can 
take place among men who do not generally abstain 
from injuring one another — the consideration of this 
necessity, it has been contended, was the ground upon 
which we approved of the enforcement of the laws of 
justice, by the punishment of those who violated them. 
Man has a natural love for society, and desires that the 
union of mankind should be preserved for its own sake, 
as though he himself was to derive no benefit from it. 
The orderly and flourishing state of society is agreeable 
to him, and he takes delight in contemplating it. Its 
disorder and confusion, on the contrary, is the object of 
his aversion, and he is chagrined at whatever tends to 
produce it. He is sensible, too, that his own interest is 
connected with the prosperity of the society, and that 
the happiness, perhaps the preservation of his exist- 
ence, depends upon its preservation. Upon every ac- 
count, therefore, he has an abhorrence at whatever 
tends to destroy society, and is willing to make use of 
every means which may hinder so hated and so dread- 



180 A TREATISE ON THE 

ful an event. Injustice necessarily tends to destroy it, 
and every appearance of injustice, therefore, alarms 
him, and he runs, if I may say so, to stop the progress 
of what, if allowed to go on, would quickly put an end 
to everything that is dear to him. If he can not restrain 
it by gentle means, he must bear it down by force and 
violence ; at any rate must put a stop to its further pro- 
gress; and it requires no great discernment to see the 
destructive tendencies of all licentious practices to the 
welfare of society, and all men, even the most stupid 
and unthinking, abhor fraud, perfidy, and injustice, and 
are ever ready to unite in suppressing everything of the 
kind. Nevertheless, of one thing I am certain — that we 
are as yet on the very threshold of knowledge and re- 
finement, and that our social condition is, to a great ex- 
tent, depravity through and through and from end to 
end — all for the want of a knowledge of ourselves, of 
those great laws and principles which underlie and con- 
trol our actions and affections. But the true philos- 
opher will be all patience for the present and confi- 
dence for the future, and never in haste to form insti- 
tutions in advance of knowledge and the proper condi- 
tion of society. 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 181 



CHAPTER III. 

OF THE SENSE OF JUSTICE, OF REMORSE, AND OF CONSCIOUS- 
NESS OF MERIT. 

" There can be no proper motive for hurting our neigh- 
bor ; there can be no incitement to do evil to another 
which mankind will go along with, except just indig- 
nation for evil which another has done to us. To dis- 
turb his happiness merely because it stands in the way 
of our own ; to take from him what is of real use to 
him, merely because it may be of equal or more use to 
us, or to indulge in this manner, at the expense of other 
people, the natural preference which every man has for 
his own happiness above that of other people, is what 
no impartial spectator can go along with. 

" Every man is no doubt, by nature, first and principally 
recommended to his own care ; and as he is fitter to 
take care of himself than of any other person, it is fit 
and right that it should be so. Every man, therefore, 
is much more deeply interested in whatever immedi- 
ately concerns himself than in what concerns any 
other man ; and to hear, perhaps, of the death of an- 
other person with whom we have no particular connec- 
tion will give us less concern, will spoil our stomach, or 
break our rest, much less than a very insignificant disas- 
ter which has befallen ourselves. But though the ruin 
of our neighbor may affect us much lesis than a very 



182 A TREATISE ON THE 

small misfortune of our own, we must not ruin him to 
prevent that small misfortune, nor even to prevent our 
own ruin. 

" We must here, as in all other cases, view ourselves, 
not so much according to that light in which we may 
naturally appear to ourselves, as according to that in 
w x hich we naturally appear to others. 

" Though every man may, according to the proverb, be 
the whole world to himself, to the rest of mankind he 
is a most insignificant part of it 

" Though his own happiness may be of more import- 
ance to him than that of all the world besides, to every 
other person it is of no more consequence than that of any 
other man. Though it may be true, therefore, that 
every individual in his own breast naturally prefers 
himself to all mankind, yet he dares not look mankind 
in the face and avow that he acts according to this 
principle. He feels that in this preference they can 
never go along with him, and that how hatural soever 
it may be to him, it must always appear excessive 
and extravagant to them. When he views himself in 
the light in which he is conscious that others will view 
him, he sees that to them he is but one of the multi- 
tude, in no respect better than any other in it. If he 
would so act that the impartial spectator may enter the 
principles of his conduct, which of all things he has 
the greatest desire to do, he must upon this, as upon all 
other occasions, humble the arrogance of his self-love, 
and bring it down to something which other men can 
go along with. They will indulge it so far as to allow 
him to be more anxious about, and to pursue with more 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 183 

earnest assiduity, his own happiness than that of any 
other person. Thus far, whenever they place them- 
selves in his situation, they will readily go along with 
him. In the race for wealth, and honors, and prefer- 
ments, he may run as hard as he can, and strain every 
nerve and every muscle, in order to outstrip all his com- 
petitors. But if he should jostle or throw down any 
of them, the indulgence of the spectators is entirely at 
an end. It is a violation of fair play which they can 
not admit of, because this man is to them in every re- 
spect as good as he ; they do not enter into that self- 
love by which he prefers himself so much to this other, 
and, therefore, can not go along with the motive from 
which he hurt him. 

" They readily, therefore, sympathize with the natural 
resentment of the injured, and the offender becomes 
the object of their hatred and indignation. He is 
sensible that he becomes so, and feels that those senti- 
ments are ready to burst out from all sides against 
him. 

"As the greater and more irreparable the evil that is 
done, the resentment of the sufferer runs naturally the 
higher ; so does likewise the sympathetic indignation 
of the spectator, as well as the sense of guilt in the 
agent. Death is the greatest evil which one man can 
inflict upon another, and excites the highest degree of 
resentment in those who are immediately connected with 
the slain. Murder, therefore, is the most atrocious of 
all crimes which affect individuals only in the sight of 
mankind and of the person who has committed it. The 
most sacred laws of justice, therefore, those whose vio- 



184 A TREATISE ON THE 

lation seems to call loudest for resentment and indig- 
nation, are the laws which guard the. life and person of 
our neighbor; the next are those which guard his 
property and possessions; and last of all come those 
which guard what are called his personal rights,or what 
is, in short, due to him from the social compact. 

" The violator of the more sacred laws of justice can 
never reflect on the sentiments which mankind must 
entertain with regard to him, without feeling all the 
agonies of shame, and horror, and consternation. When 
his passion is gratified, and he begins coolly to reflect on 
his past conduct, he can enter into none of the motives 
which influenced it, because they appear now as detesta- 
ble to him as they always did to other people. By 
sympathizing with the hatred and abhorrence which 
other men must entertain for him, he becomes in some 
measure the object of his own dislike and abhorrence. 

" The situation of the person who suffered by his in- 
justice now calls upon his pity, and he is grieved at the 
thought of it; regrets the unhappy effects of his own 
conduct, and the thought of this perpetually haunts 
him, and fills him with remorse and repentance. He 
dares no longer look society in the face, but imagines 
himself, as it were, rejected and thrown out from the 
affections of all the community; hence he can not hope 
for the consolation of sympathy in this his greatest dis- 
tress. Everything seems hostile, and he would be glad 
to fly to some remote district where he might never 
more read in the countenance of his acquaintances the 
condemnation of his crimes. 

" Such is the nature of that sentiment properly called 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 185 

remorse — of all the sentiments which can enter the hu- 
man mind the most dreadful. It is made up of shame 
from the sense of the impropriety of past conduct ; of 
grief for the effects of it ; of pity for those who suffer 
by it, and of the dread and terror of punishment from 
the consciousness of the justly provoked resentment of 
all rational men. The opposite behavior naturally in- 
spires the opposite sentiment. The man who, not from 
frivolous fancy, but from proper motives, has performed 
generous actions, when he looks forward to those whom 
he has served, feels himself to be the natural object of 
their love and gratitude, and, by sympathy with them, 
of the esteem and approbation of all mankind. And 
when he looks backward to the motive from which he 
acted, and surveys it in the light in which the indiffer- 
ent spectator will survey it, he still continues to enter 
into it, and applauds himself by sympathy with the 
approbation of this supposed impartial judge. In both 
of these points of view, his own conduct appears to 
him every way agreeable. His mind, at the thought of 
it, is filled with cheerfulness, serenity, and composure. 
He is in friendship and harmony with all mankind, and 
looks upon his fellow-citizens with confidence and be- 
nevolent satisfaction, confident that he has rendered 
himself worthy of their most favorable regards. 

" In the combination of all these sentiments consists 
the consciousness of merit, or of deserved respect.'-' — 
Smith's T. of M. Sentiments. 

"A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; 
and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise coun- 
sels." — Proverbs: 5. 



186 A TREATISE ON THE 



CIIiPTER IV. 

PHILOSOPHY, 

"What Is philosophy? It is the observation of effects 
in relation to causes, in order to the discovery of the 
laws concerned, and consists practically in the knowl- 
edge of and in the application of general truth. 

What should be the highest object of philosophers? 
It should be to attain to that state of intelligence and 
refinement in which they may be enabled to harmonize 
the opposing forces and conflicting elements ; to extract 
good, present or future, from all doctrines, theories, and 
circumstances; to appreciate and enjoy all things; rec- 
ognizing the true value and relations of every character, 
condition, and circumstance ; their knowledge being so 
full, and their enjoyments so high, that they may regret 
but very little through life — a truly enlightened and 
noble mind would not be subject to grief. 

Yes, the highest and greatest end of philosophy, both 
natural and moral, should be to know and to bless our- 
selves and our kind ; and the highest learning is to be 
wise, and the greatest wisdom is to be good. 

Socrates, who made all his philosophy subservient to 
morality, took more pains to rectify the habits and tem- 
pers of his pupils, than to replenish their understand- 
ing, and regarded all knowledge as useless speculation 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 187 

that was not brought to this end, to make us wiser and 
better men, and hence more useful citizens. 

It was a very just and sensible answer which Agesi- 
laus, the Spartan king, returned to one who asked him, 
" What it was in which youth ought principally to be 
instructed ? He replied, " That which they have most 
need to practice when they are men." "Were this single 
rule but carefully attended to in the method of edu- 
cation, it might probably be conducted in a manner 
much more to the advantage of our youth than it now 
is, for the pains we take in books or arts, which treat 
of things remote from the use of life, is but a busy idle- 
ness. And what is there in life which youth will have 
more frequent occasion to practice than the proper cul- 
tivation and government of their appetites, passions, 
and prejudices? What is there in which they need 
more direction and assistance ? What is there which 
they afterward more regret the want of ? 

Or what better reason to receive that assistance and 
to lay a foundation for this difficult, but very important 
science, than the early part of youth ? 

It may be said that it is properly the office and the 
care of parents to watch over and correct the tempers 
and habits of their children in the first years of their 
infancy, when it may be easiest done; but if it be not 
done effectually then (as it very seldom is), there is the 
more necessity for it afterward. 

But the truth is, it is the proper office and care of all 
who have the charge of children, and ought to be looked 
upon as the most important and necessary part of edu- 
cation, for he who acquires his learning at the expense 



188 A TREATISE ON THE 

of his morals is the worse for his education. And I 
may add that he who does not improve his moral and 
social habits together with his understanding, is not much 
the better for it ; because he ought to measure his prog- 
ress in science by the improvement of his morals and 
usefulness, remembering that he is no further a learned 
man than he is a wise, useful, and good one. 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 189 



CHAPTER V. 

NATURE AND NATURE'S WORKS. 

The inscription upon the temple of Isis, the personi- 
fication of the great mother, nature, was: "I am what- 
soever is, whatsoever has been, whatsoever shall be." 

Life and death follow in unceasing vicissitude ; win- 
ter prepares the earth for the genial influence of spring ; 
the vernal warmth causes trees and plants to disclose 
their blossoms, which summer develops into fruit ; the 
sea supplies, through the air, the rivers with their per- 
ennial streams ; they return their waters to the deep, 
and thus all things perpetually revolve in an unde- 
viating round, The world exists but by conflict, and is 
only maintained by opposition. Combat is the key to 
all nature's grand successes. All things find their con- 
trarieties to be the foundation of their preservation and 
their perpetuity. We ever find one force pitted against 
another. Within'our own bodies is the contest fiercely 
waged a few short years, till the assailants gain the as- 
cendency, when the citadel falls. All the. changes 
which happen in nature serve but for its duration; for 
while everything tends to its end, nature exists the 
same — is permanent. The same things always compose 
it, and one, interminating, only supplies room for 
others to succeed it; the end of the first forms the com- 
mencement of the second; and while all things are per- 



190 A TREATISE ON THE 

ishable, it is that succession may take place — that man- 
kind may be preserved, and the earth's consistency be 
confirmed. Mutability may be said to constitute the 
harmony of the universe. 

Nature, in whatever point of view we consider it, can 
not possibly be anything but that which we perceive it 
to be. It is whatsoever is, whatsoever has been, what- 
soever shall be. The ancients entertained no fearful 
ideas respecting death, because observing faithfully the 
course of nature, they knew all things were finite and 
terminate in destruction, in order that life may be 
transmitted to a succession of beings. 

The series of natural forms and combinations is eter- 
nal, but all particular beings of this eternal series are 
transitory. 

The infinite orders of existence operate by affinities 
for each other, so that the infinite chain of being is con- 
nected together by infinite links of relation; and the 
farther we venture in the wide field of analysis, the more 
we discover that we lose our pains in searching after 
any other element or basis which may be considered a 
primary principle of existence. It is by virtue of the 
nutritive action or nutrition that the organs of the body 
preserve or change their physical properties, and the 
changes in the moral being correspond. What physi- 
ologists have called the u vital force," is but the neces- 
sary or natural exercise of the functions which animal 
organization possesses, and which exertion is compelled 
by calls of animal afiinities or wants, the gratification of 
which exigencies are indispensable to its existence, par- 
ticularly that of nutrition. Art may trace the action of 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 191 

those minute portions of matter called seeds or ova, 
known to the rudiments of future life, and the links by 
which the chain of endless generation hang to existence ; 
but the eternal principle can never be disentangled and 
displayed apart — that principle, under the influence of 
which each little gem, in due time, swells out as if to 
fill an invisible mold of maturity that determines its 
form and proportions — that function by which the ani- 
mal body assumes foreign matters from abroad and con- 
verts them into its own substance. 

In the economy of life it is a general law that living 
beings derive their origin from similar pre-existing be- 
ings, like following like; the vital motions of anima- 
tion are communicated from the parent stock ; it is life 
that gives origin to life. 

The striking characteristics of animated beings are 
generation and death. Life is motion superinduced in 
matter peculiarly arranged, and death is the cessation 
of this motion. 

Vital principle, or principle of life, are the terms used 
to denote the phenomena of animation. Organization, 
which is the primary condition of life, necessarily pre- 
cedes the action of those organs, in the exercise ot 
which consists the functions of life. The action of 
every organ constitutes what is called its functions. 
Without the organ there is no function, for the plain 
reason that without the instrument by which the action 
is produced there is no action — without the instrument 
there is no music. 

-^"It is to nature, animate and inanimate, that we must 
look for all our information and improvements — for all 



192 A TREATISE ON THE 

our earthly blessings ; because her habitudes and laws 
furnish all our science, and, indeed, all the models of 
our art. She is all that is within our reach or the 
uttermost stretch of our research. If we dig into the 
earth, among minerals, soils, fountains, and eternal fires, 
there we find only her habitations and her works ; if we 
examine the atmosphere, the electric fluid, the gentle 
ripple of the brook, they all tell us only of nature. If 
we look into the flowers, examine the fruits, dissect the 
most minute structure of plants and animals, observe 
their modes of life, their passions, their wants, their 
joys, their sorrows, their hopes, their fears, the gentle 
kiss of love, or the fierce collisions of war; whether 
they burst into new life, or decay and sleep again in the 
earth; whether there be the ringing laugh of joyous 
youth, or the solemn repose of death ; whether we di- 
rect our attention to this earth and its productions, or 
point the eye of the telescope to other planets and 
other stars and other groups of suns, far off into the 
immeasurable distance — all, all is vast universal nature, 
and science is its interpretation. 

Therefore, all that we should attempt, and all that is 
possible for us to do, is to view things on earth as they 
are or seem to be, and having done this much to some 
extent, will next contemplate the works of nature in 
relation to the beauties and wonders of the planetary 
worlds. 

There are but few who have had the benefit of in- 
struction, probably few who are sensible of existence, 
that have not raised their eyes in a cloudless night to 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 193 

the starry firmament, and who have not felt some emo- 
tion, however undefined, at what they see there. 

Familiar as this continually-recurring spectacle may 
be, it is ever magnificent and ever new, and ever fills 
the mind with astonishment and awe. 

Examined by the light of science and contemplated 
in its systematic regularity, the feelings of astonishment 
and awe sink deeper and deeper, and though I am not 
prepared to say that " an undevout astronomer is mad," 
I can imagine that he must be a very peculiar man if 
this science does not fill his mind with admiration of 
the wonders of nature and of his capacity to compre- 
hend them. 

For really it is wonderful that such a transient and 
comparatively insignificant being as he who moves on 
the surface of this little globe, and who is tied down 
to it by the irresistible power of attraction, should be 
able to foretell with unerring certainty the very mo- 
ment when the light of the sun will be shut out from 
the earth by the intervening of its satellite. 

Nay, the precise moment when a comet was visible 
from our little globe, at a time long past, when he was 
not in being himself, and when it will again be visible 
when he must be gone, and perhaps unremembered on 
earth. 

Astronomers tell us also that the sun is 520 times 
larger than all the planetary globes which revolve 
around him, and 1,300,000 times larger than our own 
globe. Such is the power of this luminary that the 
planet Herschel is held in its orbit, lighted, and warmed 



194 A TREATISE ON THE 

by his brilliancy, at the distance of 1,800,000,000 of miles 
from his surface. 

Besides the sun and the planets which revolve around 
him, there belongs to the same system comets, the pur- 
pose of which is apparently inconceivable. Their mag- 
nitude and rapidity of motion are equally so. They, 
too, are nevertheless known to insignificant mortals to 
move with exact precision. 

One of them is, by human agency, known to be 
11,200,000,000 of miles from the sun at its greatest dis- 
tance, and to move at the rate of 880,000 miles in an hour 
when nearest to him. The tail of the comet which 
appeared in 1680 was computed by Sir Isaac Newton 
to be 80,000,000 of miles in length. 

Magnificent and glorious as the solar system may be, 
what is it in magnitude and distance when compared 
with the innumerable worlds, the systems upon systems 
of worlds, yea, the seas upon seas of worlds still beyond 
it; and yet how noiselessly, how harmoniously, do they 
all move around an unknown parental center. Indeed, 
infinity seems wreathed with worlds, and every one 
decorated with lesser worlds, like mighty flowers of un- 
utterable grandeur, all flying through the boundless 
realms of infinite space with a speed inconceivable, and 
causing not so much sound as the ticking watch; all 
inhabited with multiplied millions of human beings, 
some perhaps inferior to us, while the greater part are, 
no doubt, far superior in all human attributes and ac- 
quirements. 

Astronomy demonstrates the being and attributes of 
God, the source of all sublimity, and exhibits the most 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAX. 195 

striking proofs of his wisdom, liis power, unci his good- 
ness. It develops those eternal laws by which he keeps 
in order and harmony the vast and complicated move- 
ments of millions of inhabited worlds. 

The spacious firmament on high, 

"With all the blue ethereal sky, 

And spangled heavens, a shining frame, 

Their great original proclaim. 

The unwearied sun, from day to day, 

Does his Creator's power display; 

And publishes to every land, 

The work of an Almighty hand. 

Soon as the evening shades prevail, 

The moon takes up the wond'rous tale; 

And nightly, too, the list'ning earth 

Repeats the story of her birth; 

Whilst all the stars that round her burn, 

And all the planets in their turn, 

Confirm the tidings as they roll, 

And spread the truth from pole to pole. 

What though in solemn silence all, 

Move 'round this dark terrestrial ball; 

"What though no real voice nor sound 

Amidst their radiant orbs be found; 

In reason's ear they all rejoice, 

And utter forth a glorious voice; 

For ever singing as they shine: 

The Hand that made us is divine. 

In every clear night the naked eye may discover 
nearly a thousand fixed stars, which are supposed to be 
luminaries as the sun. If all these luminaries are suns, 
and have their attendant planets, as we know our sun 
to have, it would comprise a mass of matter equal to 
132,000,000 of globes the size of our earth. The assist- 



196 A TREATISE ON THE 

ance which the human eye has obtained in extending 
its views into nature's works, by artificial means, dis- 
closes to us the certainty that orbs exist at such a dis- 
tance from us, that a common ball, moving at the rate 
of 480 miles an hour, would require 9,000,000 of years 
to pass from some of them to the earth. The sun is 
computed to be 95,000,000 of miles from the earth; yet 
in eight minutes and a quarter the light reaches the 
earth from that luminary. What must be the magni- 
tude of luminous bodies, which are seen with the help 
of glasses at such a distance that it would require some 
years for light to come from them to the earth? From 
whatever point on the surface of our sphere the eye is 
directed toward the firmament, worlds on worlds, sys- 
tems on systems, are disclosed. Where shall the im- 
agination fix the boundaries of creation? Are we in 
the center of the universe, or are we in some remote 
extremity? What is the center, and what is an ex- 
tremity of the universe? If there be a center, and if 
there be limits to nature's works, what is there beyond 
them, and who and what exists where nature does not 
exist and reign ? 

But if we are astonished at the magnitude and 
distance of these luminaries, how much more so must 
we be when we try to think of them collectively and in 
motion? We know that, like the substances on the 
earth, they are held by the law of gravitation, and we 
know what strength it requires to move a weight of a 
few hundred pounds. If we could suppose our com- 
paratively small earth to be a perfectly smooth ball on 
a plane, it is believed that it would require a mechanical 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 197 

force which no human mind can compute to give it any 
motion. Yet we know it moves at the rate of 68,000 
miles in every hour, revolving as it flies; and that 
that motion which causes day and night is its rotation 
on its axis; and that which makes a period of time 
called a year, is likewise known to be its revolution 
around the sun. Now, if the circumference of the 
globe be somewhere about 25,000, and its annual course 
60,000,000 of miles, it must follow that everybody living 
on the equator is turned around in twenty hours 25,000 
miles, and all are moved forward through space during 
the same twenty-four hours the astonishing distance of 
above 1,600,000 miles! 

Such are some of natures' s physical works; and 
though no person of knowledge doubts the fact, yet no 
person, learned or ignorant, ever feels the motion in the 
slightest degree! 

This remarkable instance of the wonderful mechan- 
ism of nature, of which we form a part, may be expected, 
when clearly exposed, to make us extremely cautious in 
drawing our conclusions concerning the moral opera- 
tions of nature's works, merely from our various sen- 
sations. 

The foregoing reflections arose from the observation 
of the actual state of the human species over the surface 
of the earth, and from a consideration of the prevailing 
sentiment by which all the different societies of men are 
governed, and their actions judged; and will it be possi- 
ble that any one, when thus led to reflect, shall remain 
blind to the error of such a sentiment after so many 
years of continued misery? 



198 A TREATISE ON THE 

Shall our deceitful sensations still misguide our judg- 
ment, and shall mankind forever believe that they are 
the intentional authors of their own misfortunes? Shall 
not the history of kingdoms upon kingdoms at length 
undeceive them? Shall they go on, from generation to 
generation, holding the opinion that they can make 
themselves, intellectually, morally, and socially, almost 
entirely independent of natural influences — that men 
are free agents and can do just as they see fit, while 
they are everywhere guided and governed by the pro- 
gressive changes of nature, by the knowledge which 
her operations bring to light, and by the circumstances 
which she, in this manner and by her own power, places 
them in. Nature physically moves man, while he is 
quite unconscious of the motion; and mentally- moves 
him, though there are, unfortunately, but very few who 
are sufficiently acquainted with her law^s in relation to 
themselves to know the great truth. 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 199 



CHAPTER VI. 

SOCIAL REFORM — CIRCUMSTANCES. 

This is a very important subject, and to investigate it 
properly requires considerable knowledge of those 
laws and influences which govern and control human 
nature. 

For many years I have entertained the opinion that 
men are what they are according to their entailments 
and the circumstances which surround them in after 
life, and I know not how else to account for the differ- 
ences in their physical, moral, and social conditions. 

Nobody, I presume, in this world, ever desired to be 
sickly, poor, and unhappy, having literally a a hard 
time of it" all through life; yet there are thousands 
upon thousands thus placed. Now if they did not de- 
sire this condition, how came they in it? This is the 
question. If the universal'desire is for happiness and 
not misery, how comes it about that there is so little of 
the former and so much of the latter. 

Again, I say, this is the question, and I wish I knew 
how to make unalloyed happiness the general rule and 
misery the exception. The Christian will tell us that 
human nature is wicked — prone to evil as the sparks 
fly upward ; and some specimens of human nature that 
I have seen were very bad, it must be confessed; but 
that even they actually wanted to be so is very improb- 



200 A TREATISE ON THE 

able. Natural wickedness, therefore, is not the cause. 
What is ? I may not be able to give a satisfactory an- 
swer, but I have an idea that if one word more than 
another contains the answer, it is to be found in the 
word " circumstances" A long word — and so it should 
be, if its character can thus be measured, for wrapped 
up in it are the causes of war, slavery, intemperance, 
bigotry, and the rest of the catalogue of national and 
social troubles. 

But to come more particularly to the subject, and to 
answer an inquiry which might arise in the minds of 
some of my readers, what do you mean by a circum- 
stance? Everything which in any way operates upon 
or influences man is a circumstance. Men perform no 
action without a motive of some kind; and all their 
motives to thought and to exertion arise, either imme- 
diately or remotely, from the operation of surrounding 
circumstances upon them. If deprived of food, men 
become hungry; if of drink, thirsty; if disappointed 
in their expectations and thwarted in their desires, they 
are discontented and unhappy. 

All these feelings or sensations are the effects of par- 
ticular circumstances upon sentient organization ; they 
can not be destroyed by any mere effort of thinking or 
willing, and thus they become the causes of motives 
and the inciters to action. From the nature of man, 
therefore, he must ever be the creature of circum- 
stances ; he will ever passively receive impressions from 
surrounding objects ; for he can not, by taking thought, 
alter his organization, or add one cubit to his stature. 

Now, in respect to character, man has a capacity to 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 201 

be almost anything, and by turns almost every thi ng, as 
•circumstances shall determine. He, like the floating 
bubble on the stream, shows us, at times, many colors 
and mixtures of colors ; but these various shades of 
character, however light or dark, are little more than 
reflex radiations from surrounding objects and occur- 
rences. The simple nature of man is colorless; it is 
fitted to receive every variety of impressions; and, 
when the combined nature and impression call forth an 
action, good or bad, such action discloses not so much 
the hue of the nature itself, as the hue which it has 
taken from the bright or the gloomy influences to 
which it has been exposed. If, then, we would have 
the family of man to be, as it were, a bright and glo- 
rious assemblage of the pictures of humanity, we must 
place all men in positions and surround them with cir- 
cumstances and influences in which there shall be 
nothing (if possible) black and unseemly. 

It matters not what may be the mere knowledge 
given to men, or the moral and religious precepts 
taught, if the other circumstances by Which they are 
surrounded be disregarded. Bad circumstances and 
influences can neither produce nor maintain good men. 
Circumstances furnish the seed of good or ill, and man 
is but the soil in which they grow. The characters of 
men may be made entirely good or quite bad ; but if 
the institutional crcumstances and influences which sur- 
round them do not accord with the end desired — do not 
contain within them more of good than of evil — then 
that which was intended to be a beautiful garden will 



202 A TREATISE ON THE 

become either choked up by noxious weeds, or con- 
verted into a blighted or barren waste. 

All these considerations respecting the nature of man, 
and the influences of surrounding circumstances upon 
that nature, plainly show that the present habits and 
prejudices of the various classes of -society, and their 
feelings of reverence or contempt toward each other, 
result from the social position of one class with respect 
to another, and the difference of the circumstances by 
which each class is surrounded ; and, therefore, it neces- 
sarily follows — what has been proved by universal ex- 
perience — that were the position and circumstances of 
each class reversed, the characters of each would be 
changed, and the crawling slave of to-day would be- 
come the domineering tyrant of to-morrow. All men 
are of one substance and one nature; they are made into 
tyrants and slaves — into ignorant, dissipated, wicked, 
deceitful, and dishonest citizens — by the present social 
system, by land monopoly, and the consequent division 
of society into rich and poor ; and this division is main- 
tained, not because the first class is superior to the lat- 
ter in mental and corporeal attributes, but because the 
two exchange unequally with each other. 

History shows us how little has been the success of 
man in controlling the various circumstances which 
have relation to his existence and his happiness. 

Woefully has he sinned and suffered. He has blindly 
destroyed the wealth and shed the blood of his fellow- 
man, simply because his fellow-man felt and thought 
just the same as he himself would have felt and 
thought, had he been placed in the same position and 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 203 

exposed to the same influences. The tyranny and 
wrong at any time to be removed is not in the men, 
but in the institutions ; and wherever a physical revolu- 
tion has overturned a governmental despotism, and 
left untouched the social institutions from which that 
despotism sprang, it has never led, and never can lead, 
to any other result than a transfer of power from one 
man or one class of men to another; for the last are 
left exposed to the same influences as the first, and 
therefore they necessarily revive the apparently sub- 
verted tyranny. The empire of love can be extended 
from families and friends to nations and the world at 
large only by uprooting those social institutions which 
circumscribe the love of man to man within the narrow 
circle of a class. 



204 A TREATISE ON THE 



CHAPTER VII. 

THOUGHTS ON PREJUDICE. 

All men imagine that on this globe there is no part 
of it, in this part of the earth no nation, in the nation 
no province, in the province no city, in the city no so- 
ciety, comparable to their own. We, step by step, sur- 
prise ourselves into a secret persuasion that we are 
superior to all our acquaintances. If an oyster, confined 
in its shell, is acquainted with no more of the universe 
than the rock on which it is fixed, and therefore can 
not judge of its extent, how can a man in the midst of 
a small society, always surrounded by the same objects 
and acquainted with only one train of thoughts, be 
able to form a proper estimate of the different societies 
and peoples without his own circle ? Truth is never en- 
gendered or perceived but in the fermentation of contrary 
opinions. The universe is only known to us in propor- 
tion as we become acquainted with it, and whoever con- 
fines himself to conversing with only one set of com- 
panions can not avoid adopting their prejudices, espe- 
cially if they flatter his pride. "Who can separate him- 
self from an error when vanity and prejudice, the com- 
panions of ignorance, have tied him to it and rendered 
it dear unto him ? 

We need more toleration of individual opinions, more 
liberality, and less prejudice. There must be a certain 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 205 

conformity to laws and social regulations, of course, 
and whatever may be necessary to the safety and good 
order of society, every one should cheerfully submit to ; 
but why need we go beyond this? If people differ in 
opinion, or in taste, or in personal habits, or in the color 
of their hair, or in the length and shape of their noses, 
it need not be a cause of enmity and persecution. We 
must not be guilty of dissipation, or pick our neighbor's 
pockets ; but our believing in one or two more or less 
articles in our creed should not worry and alienate him. 

In practical morals we must, of course, agree ; but is it 
any matter what theories we hold on purely speculative 
subjects ? 

People who attend two churches in the same village 
hold diametrically opposite opinions upon some ques- 
tion of morals and religion, but so long as they can 
agree to respect and tolerate each other's opinions, no 
great harm is done. They can get bread of the same 
baker, and trade at the same grocery; but let their no- 
tions be carried into religion or politics, and very soon, 
perhaps, war is begun. As a people, we boast of our 
liberality and toleration in matters of thought and of 
conscience, but it is very doubtful whether we have the 
right to make such a boast, for it appears to me that 
our prejudices and hatreds have grown more and more 
violent. Honest men of one belief proscribe and de- 
nounce equally useful and conscientious men of another. 

Toleration is almost forgotten. Press and pulpit, the 
rostrum of the lecturer and the stump of the political 
debater, are intemperately arrayed against each other, all 
for the want of a better knowledge of ourselves, and of 



206 A TREATISE ON THE 

the laws and principles necessary to govern a com- 
munity — all for the want of a proper acquaintance with 
those great laws and influences which underlie and con- 
trol our notions, actions, and affections, which govern 
men mentally, morally, and socially. 

Indeed, such is the universal ignorance of the people 
in relation to the above-named laws and influences, 
that there are more than nineteen-twentieths of them 
who do not really know how to live, under many cir- 
cumstances, practical, moral, or religious men and 
women. 

From the fact a man can no more live rightly without 
knowing how, than he can make a wagon or violin 
without knowing how, and the former a thousand 
times more difficult to learn than the latter; hence so 
much wrangling, persecution, condemnation, and ven- 
geance in every community for mere imaginary wrongs. 
Therefore, we should all learn to 

BE CHARITABLE. 

" Do not rashly judge your brother, 
If he stumbles in the way; 
Life's beset with sore temptation, 
He has fallen — and we may. 

" Let us rather kindly help him 
To regain the pathway lost ; 
Gentle words are never wasted, 
Freely give — they little cost. 

" Take good heed unto thy footsteps, 

Round the walks lurks many a snare, 
If like him shouldst be tempted, 
Oh, my brother, watch, beware I 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 207 

11 For we grope our way so blindly 

Through the darksome shades of life, 
And the best will err so often 
'Mid its tumult, Jx>il, and strife." 

It is the philosopher alone who contemplates the 
manners, laws, customs, religions, and the different ap- 
petites and passions that actuate mankind; who can be- 
come almost insensible both to the praise and satire of 
the people; can break all the chains of prejudice; exam- 
ine with modesty and indifference the various opinions 
which divide the human family; pass without astonish- 
ment from a seraglio to a cloister ; reflect with serenity 
on the extent of human folly — who knows that our ideas 
necessarily proceed from the company we keep, the 
books we read, and the objects presented to our sight, 
and that a superior intelligence might divine our 
thoughts from the objects presented before us, and from 
our thoughts divine the number and nature of the ob- 
jects offered to the mind. 

The Arab, persuaded of the infallibility of his Khaliff, 
laughs at the credulity of the Tartar, who firmly be- 
lieves the great Lama immortal. The negro in Africa, 
who pays his adorations to the claw of a lobster or the 
horn of an animal, sees nothing on the earth but myri- 
iads of deities, and laughs at the scarcity of gods among 
us, while the ill-informed Musselman accuses us of ac- 
knowledging three. 

If a sage should descend from heaven and in his lan- 
guage and conduct consult only the lights of instinct 
and reason, he would most likely pass for a fool. Man- 
kind are so scrupulously attached to the interest of their 



208 A TREATISE ON THE 

own prejudice and vanity, that the title of wise is only 
given to the fools of the common folly. The more 
foolish an opinion is, the more dangerous it is to prove 
its folly. Fontenelle was accustomed to say that if he 
held every truth in his hand, he would take great care 
not to open it to show them to men. 

In destroying prejudices, we ought to treat them with 
respect. Like the doves from the ark, we ought to send 
some truths on the discovery to see if the deluge of 
prejudices does not yet cover the face of the earth, if 
error begins to subside, and if there can be perceived 
here and there some isles where wisdom and truth may 
find rest for their feet and communicate themselves to 
mankind. 

All those customs originate from the education and 
prejudices of the people, the observance of which can 
not, as it seems to me, contribute much to the public 
happiness, such as the austerities of the senseless Fakirs 
with which the Indias are peopled. 

These idle customs in most nations (for many of 
them are to be found in every nation under heaven) are 
more honored than the genuine virtues, and those who 
practice them held in greater veneration than good cit- 
izens. 

Happy the people among whom the customs which 
originate from prejudice and folly are only ridiculed — 
they are frequently extremely barbarous. 

In the capital of Cochin they bring up crocodiles, and 
whoever exposes himself to the fury of one of these 
monsters and is devoured, is reckoned among the elect; 
and what is more barbarous than the institution of con- 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 209 

vents among the Papists? As there are virtues of pre- 
judice, there are also vices of prejudices. 

The neglect in Catholic countries of fasts, confessions, 
penances, etc., is a crime of the first magnitude. 

And there is perhaps no country where the people 
have so great an abhorrence of the violation of these 
customs of prejudice — a greater abhorrence than they 
have for villainies the most atrocious and the most in- 
jurious to society. 

Such are some of the follies and baneful consequences 
of prejudice — the child of ignorance. 

But we of the nineteenth century, who boast so much 
of our civilization and liberality, should cherish their 
virtues, and from their follies learn to 

M Seize upon truth wherever found, 
On Christian or on heathen ground; 
Among our friends, among our foes, 
The plant's divine where'er it grows. ' 



210 A TREATISE ON THE 



CHAPTER VIII. 

A SKETCH OP NATURAL HISTORY. 

All the natural objects that surround us are the sub- 
jects of natural history, and much of the improvements 
and enjoyments of civilized life are founded on our knowl- 
edge of animals, vegetables, minerals, and fluids. 

The endless variety of subjects it embraces, and the 
peaceful nature of the pursuit, render this study not less 
interesting and agreeable than it is useful. Every animal 
or insect that presents itself, a few plants which may be 
gathered anywhere, a shell or a pebble that may be picked 
up on the roadside, or on the sea-shore, suffice to afford 
the naturalist subjects of reflection and an ample fund of 
intellectual enjoyment. 

Natural history is becoming an important part of edu- 
cation ; and the soft rising beams of its morning are 
silently and steadily creeping into the nooks and corners, 
dispelling the dark mists of bigotry, superstition, and 
error, and leaving light and loveliness in their room. 

When this knowledge, embracing as it does, the great 
laws of entailment and of mind — those principles, agen- 
cies and influences which underlie and control all the 
actions and affections of men — shall have been spread 
broadly over all parts of society, then the rotten props of 
old-established follies will tumble to the earth, and the 
>dens and strongholds of ignorance and mysticism will be 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 211 

cleared away with those masses of filth and nonsense 
which ages have been piling together. 

Now the first fact that strikes us, when looking at the 
animal kingdom, is the exact order which prevails 
throughout animated being. Every family of this king- 
dom has its peculiar place assigned to it ; to that place it 
is perfectly adapted, and to none other. In that appro- 
priate sphere it comes into being, finds its own share in 
the physical, mental, and social world ; in that it continues, 
and in that expires. All its instincts, propensities, facul- 
ties, pleasures, aversions, enmities, and wars have their 
own peculiar objects. 

For each of these innumerable classes, from the ele- 
phant to the smallest mite that the microscope discloses to 
us on the dried fruit or the purest lily's leaf, and in the 
transparent drop of spring water, there are laws of being 
far more definite, and far more faithfully obeyed, than any 
which proud intellectual man can make and enforce. 

That life is a blessing, and intended to be so understood 
and enjoyed, is proven by the sense which every living 
thing seems instinctively to have of its value; and the 
endless diversity which is found in preserving and contin- 
uing life is among the striking proofs of the power and 
uniformity of natural law. And is it not surprising that 
among the thousands of varieties, which have been dis- 
tinctly enumerated and classed by zoologists, amounting 
to not less than one hundred and fifty thousand — say one 
thousand species of mammalia, six thousand of birds, two 
thousand of reptiles, and one hundred and twenty thou- 
sand species of insects — as belonging to the earth and its 
waters, mingled together as they seem to the human eye? 



212 A TREATISE ON THE 

that every species appears to know and preserve its place, 
and each one to keep distinct from all others from age to 
age ? What is it that preserves each one, and prevents 
the confusion, which would bring on, in a very short suc- 
cession, one common ruin ? 

There are some general laws which seem to be common 
to all animal existence, and among them the necessity of 
food. From this fact it is certain that all animated 
nature is subject to daily waste which demands a daily 
supply ; and this demand appears to be intended to be sat- 
isfied in part from the vegetable creation, and in part 
from the fitness of some animals to furnish food for 
others. By this law, the animal kingdom seems to be 
going through a successive change, by which animals of 
one kind become parts of others; and the vegetable 
world makes the like contribution to animal life, and the 
latter again makes its contribution to the common mother 
of all, which, in the course of exercising its functions, 
sends forth its preparation for the same revolutionary 
course. Certainly in all this there is abundant proof to 
every contemplative mind of natural law undeviatingly 
pursued. 

But it has been objected that it is inconsistent with the 
benevolence of nature that some animated beings are 
necessary to others as food. A moment's reflection, how- 
ever, will show that this objection can not be sustained 
consistently with obvious laws ; for if some sorts of ani- 
mals did not prey upon others, the common food must be 
vegetable ; and suppose all animals and insects were left 
to increase in numbers, as we know they would do, and 
that all were to find food from vegetable products, how 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 213 

long would it probably be before all of them perish for 
want of food? Supposing existence a benefit, and con- 
sidering the numbers that escape destruction, it will be 
found that this provision so complained of is consistent 
with general laws, and consequently with the benevolence 
of nature. In the ocean, if the same law as to food did 
not prevail, its inhabitants would soon come to an end, 
for it is known that one fish may produce millions of fish. 
Now if the increase were permitted according to this 
scale, and some fish were not consumed by others, it seems 
that the whole would perish for want of food. But the 
God of Nature has wisely and mercifully provided against 
such a fatal necessity, by creating, as it were, certain 
police over nearly every family of animated being, in 
order to so regulate the increase that none should die of 
starvation. For instance, the owl, hawk, mink, etc., are 
the police over the bird kind, and often over the feathered 
tribes, small animals; the cat kind over the ox, sheep, 
deer, goat, etc. ; the large fish over the smaller ones. 
But it was left for man to provide his own police, which 
he never fails to do in the shape of war. 

Again, it is known that variety and peculiarity is one 
of nature's fundamental and all-prevading laws; and 
which was, in part, necessary to manifest her infinite wis- 
dom and goodness — necessary for the edification and grat- 
ification of all the people of the earth ; but which could 
not have been so illimitably extended, as we now find it, 
without such a provision — without some sorts of animals 
could subsist upon others. Now if we descend from these 
very general views to some particulars, we shall see new 
proofs of this theory. The sagacity with which some 



214 A TREATISE ON THE 

animals are gifted is truly wonderful ; and the natural 
history of the spider may be referred to for this. The 
migration of certain birds is another proof. Certain birds 
and quadrupeds have a kind of knowledge to which even 
man is a stranger. 

Pigeons and some domestic animals, when carried miles 
from their homes, in covered conveyances, have a power 
of discerning the way back ; and the common bee knows 
the straight line to its hive at all times, however far it may 
have wandered, and however often it may have crossed its 
own track. The senses of birds and animals appear to 
have been given to them for the spheres in which they 
live and move, and in which they are to wage war, fly 
from danger, or secure their food. Those who are curious 
in natural history will find abundant means of gratifica- 
tion in examining the works of the universe; and the 
more minute the research is, the more will it serve to 
convince the mind that nature is fixed and eternal in 
the inherent laws by which she is governed. This, I 
venture to assert, is a conviction from which the human 
mind can not escape. 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 215 



CHAPTER IX. 

CAUSES OF CRIME AND TREATMENT OF CRIMINALS. 

The causes of crime are various and numerous, yet 
they originate not in the people themselves, but from 
their surrounding circumstances. Bad circumstances 
and influences can neither produce nor maintain good 
men. 

Circumstances furnish the seed of good or evil, and 
man is but the soil in which they grow. As well blame 
the soil for growing the thistle after we had sowed the 
seed. 

All men are of one substance and of one nature; 
they are made into tyrants and slaves, into dissipated, 
deceitful, dishonest, and wicked citizens, by our present 
social system; for by land monopoly we create tyrants 
and slaves, war and polygamy; also, rob and starve the 
millions ; thereby indirectly seducing and forcing them 
into theft and robbery in order to live. And with our 
votes charter certain houses and license certain men, " of 
good character," to deal out to our well-meaning but 
imprudent citizens the liquid poison which fires their 
blood, debases their morals, dethrones their reason, 
and hence induces very many of them to violate the 
laws in every possible manner. 

Therefore, it is obvious that our crimes proceed only 



216 A TREATISE ON THE 

from our education, mal-legislation, and the pernicious 
entailments too often fastened on us ; and which entail- 
ments proceed from the past indulgence of our ances- 
try in dissipation and crime, or from their incompatible 
alliances- — the fact being obvious, that we entail on our 
progeny, more or less, not only our sinful habits, but 
our every thought, talent, appetite, passion, and dis- 
ease — like following like. 

Hence, how vastly important it is that all persons 
who are instrumental in imparting life should live 
strictly in obedience to the requirements of good 
morals and true religion ; not even allowing themselves 
to indulge, for a moment, an evil thought. 

Yes, it is from an imperfect, false, and vicious educa- 
tion — from ignorance — that all our mal-legislation, pov- 
erty, misery, and crime proceed. It is from ignorance, 
because every man loves himself well enough to desire 
liberty, self-preservation, and happiness, and would, by 
the forces of nature, promote the same were he only 
sufficiently enlightened; he is not an oyster or an owl; 
hence requires liberty and light. It is the ignorance of 
his own true and best interests — of his moral, social, 
and political rights — which causes him to transgress the 
laws of life, of humanity, and of society. 

In other words, it is the want of a true education — 
by which is meant a full and harmonious development 
of all his powers and faculties — and a good knoweldge 
of the practical duties of life; a knowledge of himself, 
of the great laws of mind, and his relations to other 
men, to society, and to the external world. Then, and 
not until then, can he ever know how to be a good and 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 217 

Law-abiding citizen — how to treat himself and other 
men under all the various circumstances through life. 

Another great cause of crime is, that tens of thou- 
sands of well-meaning parents, owing to a false affec- 
tion for their children, indulge them in impudence, dis- 
obedience, idleness, and extravagance ; teaching them to 
believe that about all they need in this world is plenty 
of fine apparel and a little book education, ignoring 
about all the essential knowledge pertaining to the laws 
of their own being and of a useful and practical life. 
And. through a vain and foolish pride are ashamed to 
give them a useful trade or business in order that they 
might live honestly by their labor; indeed, a good pro- 
portion of our criminals are men, " gentlemen," who 
are brought up without any productive business, and 
who, being reduced to want, feel constrained to steal or 
rob to live. 

Again, society has become so vain and reckless 
that moral principle or moral honesty is almost lost 
sight of by vast numbers — whatever happens to be 
popular or available being all right; indeed, even the 
various organizations are but too successfully sought as 
masks and protection from crime. 

Another great cause of crime may'be found (as be- 
fore mentioned) in our thousands and tens of thousands 
of whisky saloons, which our unwise but honest voters 
have established all over our country, and at almost 
every man's door; there to seduce themselves and their 
sons into habits of folly, idleness, and dissipation. And 
our free use of tobacco is a powerful auxiliary ro this 
gigantic system of degeneracy, demoralization, and 



218 A TREATISE ON THE 

crime; from the fact. this tobacco is a narcotic sub- 
stance which stupefies the brain and depresses the 
heart's action, consequently strongly predisposing its 
subjects to alcoholic drinks in order to counteract the 
aforesaid depressing and stupefying effects. Hence it 
is certain that our general and excessive use of this 
narcotic produces more than the one-third of all the 
inebriates of our general country — the one-third of all 
our poverty, dissipation, and wretchedness ; and crimes, 
endless crimes, are their natural and constant compan- 
ions. And, strange to tell ! our better class of citi- 
zens, including a large proportion of our " gentlemen," 
are to blame for nearly all this crime, misery, and deg- 
radation by their setting the hateful and seductive exam- 
ples to our boys, not only in the use of the " nasty 
weed," but patronizing the retreats of iniquity. When 
will men cease to be children? 

But the chief and fundamental cause of crime origi- 
nates from land monopoly, which is, and ever was, the 
prolific source of all those excesses of ignorance, ser- 
vility, and crime found among men. It circumscribes 
the advantages and privileges of the many — of mill- 
ions. It concentrates too much the wealth and re- 
sources of our general country into the hands, compar- 
atively speaking, of individuals, and thereby deprives 
them of their natural right to a fair share of the soil 
which is not the product of man, but the gift of God to 
all his children without respect to any. It allows the 
rich, by mal-legislation, to oppress the poor in every 
possible manner, denying them, virtually, the right to 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 219 

humble domiciles, and to the thousands of other com- 
mon gifts and benefits of mother earth. 

Hence they are perpetuated in poverty, ignorance, 
and degradation, which, taken together (as we too 
often find them) is, and ever has been, a fruitful source 
of crime. 

Then, with all the foregoing before us, can we won- 
der that so many criminals excuse themselves for their 
transgressions of the laws ? Then is it any wonder that 
we have so much poverty, dissipation, and crime in 
every community ? Is it any wonder that our asylums 
and prisons are ever filled with the unhappy victims of 
pernicious laws, education, and entailment — with the 
victims of dissipation and crime. I only wonder that 
we have not far more poverty, ignorance, and crime 
than we now have. I only wonder and rejoice that my 
race is capable of so much forbearance, resignation, for- 
titude, and virtue under so many gross wrongs and 
abuses. 

Then let us next consider, in humanity, how we, as 
an enlightened and christian people, should treat these 
criminals. 

The treatment of criminals is one of the most diffi- 
cult and important subjects that ever engaged the minds 
of philanthropists and statesmen. Upon the solution 
of this problem depends the hopes for the restoration 
of criminals and of moral character in the young who 
manifest an incipient proclivity to crime. The princi- 
ples upon which this renovation should proceed are 
clearly indicated by the structure and laws of the brain. 

As regards the young, it is, in the first place, essential 



220 A TREATISE ON THE 

that the moral organs should be kept in vigorous and 
sustained activity, until, by systematic cultivation and 
growth, they acquire a perfectly controlling power. 

Secondly, it is necessary that the over-active animal 
organs should be gradually checked and restrained, 
until they become entirely subordinate to the higher 
powers. 

Thirdly, it is necessary that the animal organs should 
be trained to act in co-operation with the intellectual 
and moral, and thus acquiring a legitimate sphere of 
activity, should be enabled to attain that development 
which is necessary to the perfection of the whole con- 
stitution. 

These measures have never been conjoined and effi- 
ciently carried out in the systematic manner requisite 
for the restoration of depraved characters, either young 
or old, in the schools or in the prisons. I believe we 
may reasonably expect from the efficient and systematic 
application of these principles a radical change and 
moral regeneration in a large majority of the depraved 
characters to whom they are applied. The necessity of 
intellectual and moral education is well known, but this 
principle is not acted upon in our public prisons (or 
moral murder pens) as it should be. A well-educated 
man is rarely found in the state prison, and one would 
suppose that a government, aware of "the incompat- 
ibility of moral and intellectual culture and low crime, 
would endeavor to give to all unfortunate people who 
have fallen into criminal habits that education, which, 
had it been given to them sooner, would have prevented 
their vices and crimes. 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 221 

But I would not have our criminals educated in our 
present penitentiaries any longer than until state gov- 
ernments could have time to erect, for purely reforma- 
tory purposes, new and appropriate edifices. 

Ever since civilization commenced, society has been 
experimenting to discover the requisite punishments 
for crimes, and yet the discovery has to be made. We 
must conclude that is a strange fact, when we reflect 
that every variety and extreme of punishment has been 
tried, and all have failed, and that as civilization is ex- 
tended and advanced, crime increases. 

But punishment is no longer considered, except by 
the ignorant and sanguinary, as vengeance from the in- 
jured, or expiation from the guilty. We now distinctly 
understand that the greatest possible happiness of the 
whole society must be the ultimate object of all just 
legislation ; that the partial evil of punishment is con- 
sequently to be tolerated by the wise and humane legis- 
lator only so far as it is proven to be necessary for the 
general good. 

When a crime has been committed, it can not be un- 
done by all the art or all the power of man ; by ven- 
geance the most sanguinary, or remorse the most painful. 

The fact is irrevocable ; all that remains is to provide 
for the future. It would be absurd, after an offense has 
already been committed, to increase the sum of misery 
in the world by inflicting pain upon the offender; be- 
cause he murdered my brother that is no reason that I 
should murder him ; because he stole my horse that is 
no reason why I should steal his horse; because two 
wrongs can not make a right. 



222 A TREATISE ON THE 

But by the laws of the human sentiments, a man has 
no right to do wrong, hence the moment he does a 
gross wrong he forfeits his liberty, I now quote from 
Prof. W. B. Powell on Human Temperaments : 

"When, therefore, a man has been found to have 
injured society or the public by theft, burglary, robbery, 
murder, or in any other way, except by accident, the pub- 
lic safety requires that he shall be taken out of the com- 
munity and kept out of it until a very probable cer- 
tainty shall arise that when liberated he will not again 
transgress. And as the offender can be rendered useful 
to his family, his creditors, and his country, it would be 
a great outrage upon all these interests to destroy him. 
On the contrary, there is a preponderating motive to 
save him, more especially as- he may be converted into 
a good citizen during his useful confinement. 

" I have found it very difficult to make people under- 
stand in what respect this differs from punishment. Is 
it punishment to turn a man out of church because he 
will not live in conformity with its requisitions ? 

" Can this not be done without any more motive to 
punish him than is manifested toward a mortified leg 
when it is amputated to save the body ? If society 
could have a certainty that the offender would go into 
the forest and live entirely removed from civilization, 
he should have the privilege of going, but this certainty 
can not be had. Let it be remembered that according 
to the laws of the human sentiments, no man has a 
right to liberty any longer than he acts in conformity 
with them ; when, therefore, he infracts them by doing 
injury to others, he forfeits his liberty, and then, in 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 223 

point of natural law, he has no more right to it than he 
would have to a horse that he had stolen ; and certainly 
no one would assert it to be punishment to take the 
horse from him." 

But I must here differ a little with my brother. For 
although society might have no motive to punish a man 
by depriving him of his liberty, or by confining, work- 
ing, and educating him for an indefinite time in a re- 
formatory institution to which no disgrace would be 
attached, yet the bare circumstance of removing him 
from society and from his family would be, with a large 
majority of men, attended with considerable punish- 
ment, from the fact he is a social and affectionate being, 
and like all other animals, can not properly enjoy life 
out of his natural element, remote from his family, his 
relatives, his old neighbors, and the wide world to which 
he must be attached by natural ties. However, this 
punishment would be considered, even by the criminals 
themselves, as a necessary act of kindness for the pro- 
tection of society and the reformation of the ignorant 
and deluded ; therefore, it would almost cease to be pun- 
ishment when compared to the unnatural and cruel 
manner in which they are now treated — throwing them 
into ignominious prisons and working them as any mon- 
ster would work a brute, and giving no part of their 
wages to their destitute and worthy families — by fasten- 
ing on them and their innocent but unfortunate fami- 
lies endless disgrace — by committing on them moral 
and physical murder. 

But when the liberty of the offender has been taken 
into custody, it becomes the duty of the law to ascertain 



224 A TREATISE ON THE 

as to the fact whether he has or has not offended. If 
the affirmative shall be found to be the fact, the conclu- 
sion is certain that he should be removed from society, 
whether idiotic, sane, or insane — questions with which 
the court has nothing to do, 

Justice has now been done to society; all its indi- 
viduals may go to sleep under a feeling of security. 
The offender has been placed where he is to remain 
until he can come out with safety to the public good. 

It is now proper that we should visit the prisoner, 
and ascertain his true condition, that justice, at least, 
should be done to him. An investigation of his con- 
dition discovers that he has not received such an educa- 
tion as would enable him to comprehend his relations 
to or his duties in society, or he has had entailed upon 
him an organization indicating such a deficiency of the 
human sentiments as to render it impossible that he 
should be a law unto himself, and that he has not been 
educated or trained to act in conformity with the estab- 
lished laws of society. 

In either case it is evident that society was the first 
offender, and as a natural consequence it has suffered, 
and that the one through whom it was made to suffer 
has now to suffer in consequence of his act; and if pun- 
ishment is to be introduced, society, for its neglect to 
the prisoner, deserves more than he — indeed, all of it. 

In civilized countries the municipal laws and institu- 
tions are supposed to be founded upon the supremacy 
of the human sentiments, otherwise it is still in the ani- 
mal or savage state, which is unfortunately in a great de- 
gree the fact. A society existing strictly under the su- 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AXD SOCIAL MAN. 225 

premacy of the human sentiments, would take care to 
prepare every individual for a life of harmony with its 
institutions, and in proportion as it neglects to do this, 
will it suffer through its neglected individuals? This 
is not all; a state of society long existing under the 
supremacy of the human sentiments could not furnish 
a degraded or criminally constituted individual any 
more than the cattle about Lexington, Kentucky, where 
proper attention has been given them for many years, 
can furnish a scrub cow or ox. Both ignorance and 
degradation are, therefore, referable to society, and all 
that it suffers through its evil-doers are consequences 
which as inevitably flow ^frorn the social infringement 
of the laws of the human sentiments, as broken bones 
" do from the infraction of the law r s of gravitation. 

Under this state of the facts what shall be done? 
Justice answers: "Although the safety of society re- 
quired that he should be taken out of it, yet it does not 
follow that our obligations to him are to be in this wise 
canceled. We should, as far as possible, make resti- 
tution for our neglect, not only to him, but to his an- 
cestry. He should have our kindness and charity as 
an unfortunate individual of our race — as one upon 
whom the blighting influence of social neglect has 
fallen without any agency of his own. We should pro- 
vide for him kind and capable instruolors, such as can con- 
vince him of the justice of his imprisonment — call into 
activity his human sentiments, and regulate by them the 
action of his animal impulses, and make him feel that so- 
ciety is kind and designs to restore him to liberty and happi 



226 A TREATISE ON THE 

In other words, I have to say that inasmuch as all 
offenders are such because of inherited mental imper- 
fection, an education at war with the safety and inter- 
ests of society, mental deficiency, or mental derangement 
(insanity), they should be regarded as unfortunate rather 
than as criminal. 

The laws, therefore, should furnish them protection, 
under such influences as will be favorable to their return 
to society, with a strong probability, not only of safety 
to the latter, but of usefulness. 

To obtain these requisite results, our penitentiaries 
with proper modifications will answer; but the name 
should be changed; they should be called sanitary, or 
reformatory, or by some other name which conveys no 
idea of disgrace. 

To the offenders every possible motive should always 
be presented that can favor reformation. As labor is 
indispensable to both health and happiness, they should 
be required to labor; but in this labor they should feel 
as much interest as they did in their labor before forfeit- 
ing their liberty; that is, all they can earn over and 
above the expenses of the institution should be placed 
to their credit, and subject to their order, under the dis- 
cretion of the superintendent. 

Unfortunately, I have again to differ with my brother 
in regard to the using of our penitentiaries for reforma- 
tory purposes; from the fact, a thousand years would 
not overcome the prejudice and scandal attached to 
such ignominious prisons — to such murder pens. There- 
fore, I would be in favor of erecting new and appropri- 
ate edifices on healthful and eligible sites, and also of 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 227 

tearing down all penitentiaries, not leaving one stone on 
top of another, that the coming generations may not 
behold the hateful relics of their ancestral folly and 
cruelty. 

"The institution, morally and intellectually, should 
be under the guidance of one who, by talent and edu- 
cation, is capable of judging of the capacity, sanity, 
degradation, and degeneracy of each prisoner, and of 
treating each one accordingly; of awakening and di- 
recting the human sentiments; of training the animal 
propensities; of doing, in fine, all that can be done, 
promotive of their return to society. In a few words, 
this individual should be an educated, practical, and 
philanthropic phrenologist. 

" Nothing like punishment should ever be inflicted. 
"Whatever was requisite to do, to secure obedience, 
should follow as a necessary consequence upon violated 
law, as a broken arm succeeds to and depends upon a 
fall from a horse. Every prisoner should be made to 
believe that his removal from society was not for pun- 
ishment, but for the protection of it ; and this will be 
easily accomplished if the treatment that follow shall 
correspond with the idea. 

" This course is essential, because the idea of pun- 
ishment flows from and is received only by the animal 
faculties; and so long as they feel the imprisonment 
and the consequent treatment, so long will reformatory 
efforts be attended with a failure. 

" Furthermore, everything that is done should be done 
kindly, and with an obvious intention to their advan- 
tage. By this means they will soon love and obey the 



228 A TBEATISE ON THE 

officers, and feel grateful for the means which are be- 
stowed upon them with a view to their ultimate liberty, 
happiness, and usefulness. The repose which this course 
would soon procure for their animal propensities, and 
the activity which their human sentiments would ac- 
quire, would in a short time render them more happy 
than they ever before had been. 

"-To an institution thus provided and governed, the 
laws should send every offender, not for a definite period, 
but for an indefinite one, or for a time as long as the safety 
of society shall require it. No one should be permitted 
to return to society before a strong presumption shall 
be obtained that he will be a good citizen. Under such 
a system from ten to fifteen, possibly twenty-five, per 
cent, would never be returned to society, and why 
should they? They are so nearly animals, that with 
enough to eat they become happy in the prison, but 
could not be happy out of it, because incapable of pro- 
viding for their wants by any variety of consecutive in- 
dustry. 

" This is briefly my plan for the protection of society, 
and the education and reformation of offenders; and 
though the tendency of society is now toward an aban- 
donment of punishment, although punishment has 
never adequately protected society, and although I am 
as confident that a plan in principle like this will ulti- 
mately be adopted by a more advanced civilization, yet 
a partiality for time-honored errors, a bigoted aversion 
to change, an existing love of vengeance, and the exist- 
ing ignorance of the natural laws of man. will start a 
thousand objections to the plan." 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 229 

To arrange two or three hundred offenders in a re- 
formatory prison or institution, like the pupils of a col- 
lege, in classes for moral and scientific study and in- 
struction, and provide them with the necessary courses 
of studies from three or four teachers, as anticipated 
from the above plan, would be considered rather a start- 
ling novelty; yet a little reflection would show us that 
this suggestion is strictly practicable, and would be 
really economical. As the object of such confinement 
is not the infliction of suffering to gratify a revengeful 
spirit, but the protection of society and the general 
benefit and improvement of the public, it is certainly 
vastly cheaper to adopt any course of training for 
a reformatory purpose than to confine convicts under 
rigid and inhuman discipline, without moral and intel- 
lectual influences, and ultimately to send them forth 
upon the general country to repeat their career of 
crime, inflicting upon the communities not merely the 
outrages of robbery, arson, and murder, but the enor- 
mous expense of sustaining a profligate population, 
living by vice, and employing an extensive corps of 
police to prevent their crimes and to watch and arrest 
the criminals. 

Education, which prevents crime, is vastly cheaper 
than penal law, which meets and punishes it ; and even 
when that education has been in the first instance neg- 
lected, its beneficial effects may be realized by elevating 
the debased and restoring the harmony of a distorted 
character. Intelligence — the knowledge of ourselves, 
and hence of our fellow-men — of those great laws and 
influences w r hich underlie and control all our actions — 



230 A TREATISE ON THE 

necessarily tends to goodness; for, in proportion as the 
faculties of the mind become developed, it is able to dis- 
cern what is the wisest course in life ; what is our true 
and best interest (which is a bit of knowledge that not 
one in five hundred possesses) ; to discover that crime 
ends in misery, and that a virtuous life alone can yield 
much true enjoyment. 






INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 231 



CHAPTER X. 

PUNISHMENT FOR CHILDREN". 

Do you think it wrong to punish children ? " Spare 
the rod and spoil the child/' you know. 

This question was sent to me long ago for an answer 
in the laws of life. I have not replied heretofore, not 
because I have considered it of no importance, but, on the 
other hand, because of the immense importance which I 
attach to this subject, and because of my sense of in- 
competency fitly to discuss it. 

I do think it wrong to whip children, if we give to 
the term " punishment " such significance as many peo- 
ple attach to it. 

No parent may rightfully administer punishment to 
his child as a compensation or recompense for wrong 
committed — to wreak vengeance upon him or " pay him 
off" his evil doings. Yet I believe that oftener than 
otherwise parents do chastise their children with such 
motives. They possess the same notions about punish- 
ing children or criminals as they suppose God cherishes 
in his relations to men. 

They think that if men are sinful God will arbitrarily 
send afflictions upon them in this world, or everlasting 
misery in another world, as a recompense, there being 
no natural connection between the sin and the suffering. 
I am not willing to think of God in that way. I be- 



232 A THEATISE ON THE 

lieve that all suffering of men, whether in this life or 
in a future life, follows naturally and as a legitimate and 
inevitable consequence of sin committed, and that God, 
being true, holy, and loving, can uot interfere to pre- 
vent the result. Suffering is born of sin. 

If one is sick, it is because he or his ancestors have 
committed the sin of transgressing the laws of health, 
and the suffering naturally flows out of his transgres- 
sion. God does not arbitrarily send it upon him to ex- 
press his displeasure. If a little child dies, it is not an 
arbitrary act of God, taking vengeance or visiting judg- 
ment on the parent because of some moral obliquity or 
spiritual defection ; but is the natural consequence of 
the physical sins (committed ignorantly perhaps) of the 
parent, just as truly as the withering of the bud on the 
rose-bush results from the gnawing of a worm at the 
root. If we are selfish and rebellious, hateful and ha- 
ting one another, we must be dissatisfied and unhappy, 
because such consequences naturally flow from cherish- 
ing such vile spirits. God can not make a human being 
happy whose breast is the abode of demons. Such 
place must be foul and unclean. A distinguished 
preacher said not long ago, he is sure there is a hell, 
because he sees people in hell every day. But God does 
not put them there because he wants to wreak ven- 
geance upon them, but because, whether they are in this 
world or in another world, the spirit which they enter- 
tain is one which comes from beneath — a selfish one. 
God has provided a means of cure for all the ills of 
humanity, but his remedy is not applied to the effect 
without removing the cause. It is a cure for sin, and 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAX. 233 

thus it becomes a cure for the consequence of sin, which 
is suffering. If men will be shielded from the natural 
results of sin, they must depart from it. 

The effect upon society, upon government, and upon 
individuals, would be salutary — quite reformatory — if 
men would reject the idea that God inflicts punishment 
arbitrarily ; for then we should no longer punish crimi- 
nals vengefully, nor would parents feel at liberty to 
pay off their children by inflicting suffering for offenses 
committed against them. They would never whip their 
children simply because they deserve it. 

But if to punish is to correct, then are parents not 
only at liberty to punish their children, but they are 
bound to do so, provided they are well satisfied that 
the means used will accomplish the end sought, and 
provided also they can in no other way so well produce 
the desired effect. I presume that if all these consid- 
erations were well weighed in every case, three-fourths 
of all the punishment bestowed upon children would at 
once be abolished, and in the one-fourth of all the cases 
left, the parents would proceed to do their duty with 
great humility ; for in almost every instance where it is 
necessary that a child should be punished, it is the pa- 
rent's fault ; or if not so, it is the fault of some person 
who has wronged the child. 

If children were born with true and normal organi- 
zations and combinations of all their faculties, moral, 
mental, and physical, and were properly trained from 
birth, they would seldom need punishment. If there is 
a defective native organization, is it not the fault of the 
parents, or of their parents ? If the training and edu- 



234 A TKEATISE ON THE 

cation is not complete, is it not the fault of the parents 
or of others who influence the child ? Children are 
born with bad tempers, with stubborn wills, with per- 
verse propensities, some are born iambs, and some 
wolves or tigers, merely because the parents or grand- 
parents are or were faulty in their development and 
culture, and if, instead of disciplining bad tempers in 
themselves, they set about punishing these in their chil- 
dren, should they not do it with self-abasement? The 
parents may have earnestly tried to do the best they 
could under their conditions and circumstances; but do 
their best, they can not prevent their children from in- 
heriting, in some degree, the effects of their errors and 
follies. 

If Earey has taught men in large measure to dis- 
pense with whipping animals by instituting more ra- 
tional management, why may hot the principles of sci- 
ence be applied to children, in instituting improved 
methods of governing them, or rather of teaching 
them self-government, for this is the end always to be 
sought by discipline, whether it be of children or of 
criminals. 

Not until the people learn that the world is to be 
improved, and Christianity is to find its greatest tri- 
umphs in the begetting and training of children under 
the controlling influences of love and wisdom, will they 
receive justice at the hands of those who have the 
charge of them. "When that time comes, the welfare 
of children will not be made secondary to the comfort 
of self-indulgence of their elders, to the care of houses, 
lands, or shops, or to the demands of fashion. 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 235 

They will not be begotten by accident and brought to 
the birth without reference to the laws of their being, 
and left to make their way in the world without any 
proper provision for the best discipline of mind and of 
body. Many a mother now worn and weary by her 
labor and care, irritated and fretted by the inquisitive- 
ness and activity of her child, running riot for want of 
wise direction, hits the little one a slap over the ears, or 
seizes and shakes and spanks it, when, if she had the 
freedom which the care-taker of children ought to have, 
she could easily lead it in the right way without a blow 
or a harsh word. The necessity for punishing children 
exists by far more in the circumstances which surround 
them than in the natures or conditions of children them- 
selves. A child neglected when it deserves and ought 
to have attention, becomes restive and ugly, and the 
mother, under pressure, feels compelled to punish it; 
whereas this might be avoided as well as not — yes, far 
better than not, insomuch as it is better to prevent a 
wrong than to correct it when it has once been commit- 
ted. Many times children have to be punished because 
of bad bodily conditions, for which the parents are en- 
tirely to blame. A sickly, peevish child is much more 
likely to need correction than a healthy, happy one, and 
if the child is sick the parent is responsible. Many 
children are cross and unmanageable, and have to be 
subjected to punishment simply because they are fed 
upon flesh meats and condiments, which irritate and in- 
flame the stomach, who, if they were restricted to sim- 
ple and nutritious diet, taken with regularity at proper 
intervals, would be easily managed. Children become 



236 A TREATISE ON THE 

cross and have to be punished because their nervous 
systems are excited in innumerable ways, when they 
ought to be left quiet and undisturbed. I knew one 
mother whose only child was subject under any excite- 
ment to fits of intense anger, for the exhibition of 
which he would have received severe punishment at the 
hands of the majority of mothers. 

But this woman adopted the practice of bathing 
soothingly the head of her child in cold water for half 
an hour whenever he became angry, which invariably 
had the effect to bring him to his right mind, to repent- 
ance, and reconciliation to her. If, then, parents feel 
called upon to administer punishment to their children, 
let them do it after due consideration, with humanity, 
and with a conviction that it is rendered necessary by 
the false conditions or circumstances in which the child 
has been placed. Miss H. N. Austin. 

"Why blame the thistles for having grown, 
After we ourselves the seed have sown ? 

KIND WORDS. 

Kind words are dew-drops from the soul ; 
The source is never dry; 

For as we draw from that pure spring, 
? T is replenished from on high. 

Oft have kind words saved from despair- 
Perhaps a drunkard's grave — 

A brother, sister,»or a friend, 
Whom naught else e'er could save. 

Let no occasion ever pass 

To give a cheering word ; 
Each one is registered u On High," 

The giver's prayers are heard. 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 237 

The journey, from the cradle to 

The grave, is but a day; 
None e'er should lose a moment's time 

Contending by the way. 

But if a fellow-being fall, 

Or weary on the road, 
Give him kind words to cheer him on, 

And bear with him his load. 
E'en though your own be hard to bear, 

To you strength will be given ; 
For God rewards kind words and acts — 

They 're stepping stones to heaven. 

THE PRESS. 

Firm in the right the daily press should be, 
The tyrant's foe, the champion of the free; 
Faithful and constant to its sacred trust — 
Calm in its utterance, in its judgment just. 



238 A TREATISE ON THE 



CHAPTEK XI. 

MOTHERS AND THEIR DAUGHTERS. 

" Some mothers are at fault in releasing their daugh- 
ters from toil and care. By so doing they encourage 
them in indolence. The excuse these mothers some- 
times plead is, 'My daughters are not strong.' But 
they take the sure course to make them weak and inef- 
ficient. Well-directed labor is just what they require 
to make them strong, vigorous, cheerful, happy, and 
courageous to meet the various trials with which this 
life is beset. 

" Mothers, labor will not injure your daughters so much 
as indolence will. Do they feel weary at the close of 
their day's duties? A night's rest will refresh and in- 
vigorate them, and in the morning they will be pre- 
pared to engage again in useful labor. 

"Many mothers are too ready to shield their delicate, 
ease-loving, pleasure-seeking daughters from care and 
responsibility, as though they feared a little care would 
injure them. These mothers make a sad mistake. In 
lifting responsibilities from their daughters, they make 
them inefficient for useful labor, and render them use- 
less so far as practical life is concerned. 

" Their education has a tendency to make them 
thoughtless of others. They are frivolous and, per- 
haps, vain. Their minds are occupied with themselves. 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 239 

Their own amusements and selfish gratifications are 
their chief study; hence they become proud, unteach- 
able, unamiable. They fancy themselves delicate in 
health, when they have the powers within them, if 
called into exercise, to make useful, working women. 

"Indolence is a curse to them, as they learn the fash- 
ionable simpering and artificial lisping so common with 
spoiled young ladies. Affectation is seen in almost 
every action. They are amused with themselves, and 
are thoughtless of others. They live upon the plenty 
which surrounds them in their parental homes, and de- 
pend upon the bounty given them of their parents. 
They lean upon parental strength, and hence fail to 
acquire the power of depending upon themselves. And 
those of this class are unprepared for the stern realities 
of life. They make no provision for the losses and 
disappointments of this inconstant life. They may be 
deprived of property and of parents. What, then, will 
they lean upon? They have not acquired a principle 
of self-support, of noble independence and self-reliance, 
and they droop through murmuring, disappointment, 
and discouragement. They may then regret the de- 
fects in their education, and blame their mothers for 
them. These are some of the many fruits of a mother's 
mistaken fondness. 

" Inactivity weakens the system. God made men and 
women to be active and useful. Nothing can increase 
the strength, of the young like proper exercise of all 
the muscles in useful labor. But the indulgent mother 
frequently sacrifices her life in her misguided affection 
for her children. And are they, in any way, benefited 



240 A TREATISE ON THE 

by the great sacrifice of the precious strength of the 
mother? No; but they are positively and permanently 
injured. They are taught to think and care only for 
themselves — 'are taught to be disobedient, ungrateful, 
extravagant, and worthless young women — unprepared 
to make good wives or good mothers — only fit to squan- 
der what they may inherit, and finally to become a dis- 
grace to themselves and to their relatives.' ' Just as 
the twig is bent the tree inclines/ 

" Mothers should instruct their daughters not to yield 
to indispositions and slight ailments. If they complain 
of inability to labor, they should not be urged to eat. 
They should be taught that if they are unable to per- 
form light labor, the system is not in a condition to 
take care of food. They should fast for one or two 
meals, and drink only pure, soft water. The loss of a 
meal or two will enable the overburdened system to 
overcome slight indispositions, and even graver diffi- 
culties may be overcome by this simple process. 

"It is very injurious for persons in full flesh to lie in 
bed simply because they feel sick. Some, even while 
thus inactive, eat regularly. The physical, mental, and 
moral powers are enfeebled by indolence. 

"Mothers, if your daughters are surrounded with 
plenty, do not make this an excuse for neglecting to 
give them an education in the useful branches of house- 
hold labor. 

" Do not encourage them in indolence, or allow frivo- 
lous employment of their time. You should help your 
children to acquire a knowledge, that, if necessary, they 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 241 

could live by their own labor. You should teach them 
to be decided in following the calls of duty." 

Now the foregoing suggestions and admonitions apply 
equally well to fathers and their sons, and all parents 
who may chance to peruse them might do well to — 
Take Warning. Yes 9 

11 A word to parents, one and all, 
"Who in our city do reside ; 
See to your children, large or small; 
Instruct right, be this your pride. 

" 'T is wicked pride to dress in silk, 

And leave your children in the street; 
The little ones need bread and milk, 
And larger ones their bread and meat. 

11 When left alone they run astray, 
Especially your darling boy; 
Te fathers do n't forget the way, 
It is to give your sons employ. 

"For idleness is sure to bring, 1 

Some trouble to them in the end ; 
And many in this town will swing, 
If in their ways they do not mend. 

"Already some have had to go 

To learn a trade, and learn it free ; 
And where are others that we know ? 
In prison ? No, but ought to be ! 

"Ye mothers, too, pray do your part, 

And teach your daughters right to know; 
When they 're old they '11 not depart, 
If traind the way they ought to go. 



242 A TREATISE ON THE 

u Your child was given you to rear, 
In ways of honesty and truth ; 
But ah! too plainly doth appear 
The sheer neglecting of the youth. 

" If mothers take such frequent tramps 
Upon the streets, and children roam, 
No wonder that your sons are scamps, 
Nor that your daughters love not home. 

"Pigs, cows, and horses, where are they? 
Of course they'll not neglected be j 
But where the children are to-day, 
Tou scarcely can take time to see. 

'* Now, if at once we will begin, 
According to the blessed Word, 
"We '11 hear the welcome, enter in, 
And taste the joys of thy dear Lord." 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 243 



CHAPTER XII. 

MATTER AND MOTION. 

I know of nothing in nature and the constitution of 
things which is not comprehended in matter and motion. 
Motion is change in opposition to a state of rest. Mat- 
ter is material substance ; but matter and motion are 
inseparable, insomuch that we can form no idea of 
the one in utter absence of the other. When we con- 
ceive of the existence of matter, it has form, and all 
forms are from motion. 

"We can conceive of a force as inherent in matter, 
which may become motion. Thus, of oxygen. It is so 
often, if not always, present in all changes in matter 
that it would seem to authorize the belief that this gas 
may be the force which is the germ of all motion. I 
speak of magnetic and electrical forces without imply- 
ing actual motion; that is, any relative motion, any 
change in a given state. But then we must bear in 
mind that motion is as general and as extended as matter 
is, so that as we can not know what matter is, so we can 
never tell where motion's limits are. 

Thus the motions of my hand now writing have been 
caused by an eternal series of motions that have gone 
before. Hence, although we may refer to any specific 
motion, and say it was first or last when compared with 
another change which went before, or which followed 



244 A TREATISE ON THE 

after, yet of all motions that have gone before, we could 
not say of one that it was first of all, in the sense of 
bearing a nnmerical relation as the first to all motions, 
past, present, and future. 

It may be sufficient for our present purpose to say 
that certain motions depend on certain qualities and 
quantities of matter. But, at the same time, it is easy 
to see that these degrees in the qualities and quantities 
of matter are determined by motions which go before, 
so that it is manifestly true, as I have stated, the terms 
matter and motion comprehend all that we can know 
of anything, 

"When, therefore, we speak of the human body, and 
the laws of life or of health and disease, we can mean 
nothing more than is comprehended under these terms. 
What we want to know must have respect either to the 
quantity or qualities of the matter which enters into 
the composition of our bodies; and these involve also 
the idea of motion, which makes more or less of both 
the one and the other. 

The term quality applies to motion as really as to 
matter, and we know that quality appertains to the in- 
herent forces (positive and negative) in nature, as really 
as they distinguish the sexes in vegetable and animal 
life. Motions and qualities reciprocally induce each 
other, as we see in the case of heat; motion produces 
heat, and vice versa. 

I do not say which may be first in the primal order of 
nature, whether heat or motion; but I know that in so far 
as motion is Motional, electricity is always evolved, so 
that all motion may be said to be more or less electrical; 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 245 

that is, it produces electricity, or is produced by it, or 
both. 

This much, then, premised, I proceed to observe that 
there are two great questions which meet us on the 
threshold of our general subject: 

1. As it respects the elements which enter into the 
composition of the human body, their number, their 
qualities, and the proportions in which they are mixed 
or combined. These it is not difficult to determine, as 
by chemical analysis we know how many elements have 
thus far (64) been discovered in matter; and in the 
same manner we can ascertain how many are to be 
found in the composition of animal bodies. 

2. As it respects the motions which make life and 
health. These are numerous and complicated. Thus 
we can understand in what sense the motions which 
form the oyster or a potato are low, or less complicated 
than those which make animal life in the form of a 
human body. 



246 A TREATISE ON THE 



CHAPTER XIII. 

PHILOSOPHY, MYSTERY, AND MUTATION. 

Really how little one knows; with a universe be- 
fore ns we are yet striving to master the mysteries of 
an atom. Even to the question, what is an atom, phi- 
losophers preserve a modest silence. It is true that 
philosophers have been rewarded with the discovery of 
the law by which many atoms unite, but how small the 
discovery in proportion to what remains to be discov- 
ered ! Surrounded by forces, philosophers are yet ask- 
ing themselves the question, what is force ? Contem- 
plating the wonderful, the beautiful, the varied phenom- 
ena of nature, we ask, are all these phenomena the 
result of many forces? Or, is it one force which under 
all these different aspects is manifesting itself to our 
senses ? Phenomena are ever changing ; rocks crum- 
ble, rivers flow, sometimes they change their courses, 
sometimes they dry up altogether. Trees bloom, they 
wither ; generations of men come into being, pass away 
to make room for others ; change everywhere — rocks, 
rivers, flowers, oceans, mountains, trees, birds, beasts, 
and fishes ; all change, ever did change, and always 
will. 

But why do they change ? "What is it that does 
change them? Is there something under all these 
changes that remains, though invisible and intangible, 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 247 

ever the same — changing, but itself remaining un- 
changed? "Who shall answer us? Philosophy pre- 
sumes not to do it, nor ever to be wise above what 
is revealed. Philosophy observes these changes and 
notes the order of their occurrence, but beyond 
this it does little ; it deals with the manner, it fol- 
lows the method, it answers the " how " of a thing 
rather than the " why." Take, for instance, two gases, 
oxygen and hydrogen, neither of them fluid; they unite 
and water is formed. Philosophy will tell you how to 
unite them, but declines an answer to " why " water is 
formed by the union. ' The great reason why philoso- 
phers know more than others is that they observe more 
than others. A chemist knows what passes under his 
observation — he knows no more. Hypothesis and spec- 
ulation begin where observation ends. Take the tini- 
est flower that grows on the road- side, take the butter- 
cup or take the daisy, and ask philosophy to explain 
how each receives its own peculiar tint; take man, and 
ask philosophy whence he came; ask his history; ask 
how he came to be the wonderful being he is, endowed 
with life and motion, with aspirations and emotions ; 
or ask why he is not other than he is. Ask what that 
wonderful thing is we call gravitation. We say that 
gravitation molds a tear and gives shape to a world. 
Gravitation causes a balloon to ascend and rain to de- 
scend ; it holds the earth on its orbit, and is the uni- 
versal bond of union, but what is it? Philosophy has 
never yet vouchsafed an answer. What is electricity ? 
What is the magnetic fluid ? What about the my steries 
of a blade of grass — a fragile thread which yet grows 



248 A TREATISE ON THE 

upward and straight, despite the boisterous gales which 
so rudely over them blow ? There are mysteries in every 
leaf, in every flower, in every stone upon which we 
tread. There are mysteries in every insect which dances 
through the hazy atmosphere ; mysteries here, there, and 
everywhere. And what does philosophy say to all these 
mysteries? It says the solution of these mighty problems 
are hid deep down in the bosom of nature ; make 
use of me as an instrument to interrogate her — she may 
yield up her secrets tardily. She may do it with a seem- 
ing unwillingness, but to him who perseveres in his 
asking shall some of the secrets be told. Are discov- 
eries slow, philosophy must be patient ; are nature's se- 
crets but darkly revealed, philosophy waits for more 
light. Philosophy is earnest, persevering, yet cautious 
and modest. Where light is not vouchsafed, she utters 
no oracles ; where darkness prevails, philosophy stands 
awaiting a higher altitude of the sun of science, and in 
proportion as light is given, she proceeds from conquest 
to conquest. 

Therefore the following conclusion appears reasonable : 
That nature, throughout all nature and in all her rami- 
fications, ever did, ever will, act like herself; and, judging 
from all we know, there can be no doubt of this fact. 

Call it wisdom, call it power, call it fate, call it what 
you please, altering the name does not alter the thing. 
Let the universe, then, embracing all the heavenly and 
earthly bodies, move on in its course, for all things, 
though in everlasting conflict, worketh well, not only for 
the perpetuation, perfection, and harmony of all inert 
nature, but for the good of all animate creation. Yea, all 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 249 

those opposing forces, motions, and commotions — all those 
conflicting and warring elements in nature, morals, and 
politics — are nothing more than the agencies of the great 
first cause laboring incessantly to analyze and to purify 
the various elements ; all necessary for our happiness 
and proper development. 

And all striving for and tending to the great and 
universal law of equilibrium, which no sooner found 
than needs to be disturbed, to avoid inaction and con- 
sequent stagnation and ruin. Are not the heavens and 
earth sustained and kept in motion and harmony by 
their conflicting elements and opposing forces, by the 
laws of attraction and repulsion, by action and re- 
action. 

Is there not an eternal warfare in every department 
of nature ? The waters are forced to the mountain top 
to quickly return headlong, tearing, roaring, and dash- 
ing everything before them, until an equilibrium is 
found, which, no sooner done, than compelled to return 
to repeat the everlasting process. And the winds, too, 
by the action of heat and cold, forever contribute to 
keep up an irrepressible conflict in nature. Yes, kind 
readers, this sublunary paradise, this beautiful and fer- 
tile earth, has not escaped nature's immutable and irre- 
sistible laws ; its every acre has been heaved and up- 
heaved time and again, literally turned inside out. Vast 
rivers have disappeared and formed again in other lo- 
calities. The seas have been heaved up into lofty 
mountains, and mountains become beds of seas. On- 
ward ! onward ! is the language of all creation. The 
mountains lift up their heads and tell it to the clouds, 



250 A TREATISE ON THE 

the waters of the deep roar it up, the night winds 
whistle it, and the stars whisper it. Everything is on- 
ward in their formation and dissolution. Continents 
feel it and are convulsed with an earthquake. Cities 
hear its voice and rise into magnificence to soon disap- 
pear. Nations hear it and sink into the dust. 

So everything is onward in formation, change, and 
perishability. The compact rock itself yields up its 
form and crumbles under the influence of heat, mois- 
ture, and frost ; and the iron dug up from the recesses 
of the earth yields to the same laws of change. 

Now if the works of nature thus obey the great laws 
of change, still more readily do the frail works of man 
yield to the same laws. 

Witness the political and physical antiquity. "Where 
is the old Assyrian empire, the earliest on the pages of 
authentic history — the empire of the great Cyrus — the 
Grecian empires and republics? And where is the 
hundred-gated Thebes — Babylon, the city of palaces — 
Jerusalem, the city of the chosen One ? And where is 
Rome, called by her builders The Eternal ? All, all, 
have yielded to the same law of mutation, and are num- 
bered only among the things that have been. 

Now if the law of change has worked such wonder- 
ful feats among the ancient nations — if their empires and 
republics, their fair fields and magnificent cities, have 
been overrun and desolated by contending armies — may 
not this proud republic expect sooner or later to experi- 
ence like vicissitudes and calamities ? Or is this boast- 
ful and young nation destined to form an exception to 
all those which have preceded it ? No, no; we must not 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 251 

so deceive ourselves, for we, too, have sinned, are still sin- 
ning, oppressing the homeless, the weak, and destitute 
of all nations. Hence we, too, must expect that the day 
of retribution will come ; that this republic, too, with all 
its fair fields and magnificent cities will yet be overrun, 
desolated, and demolished — must also pass away and be 
only remembered among the things that have been. 



252 A TREATISE ON THE 



CHAPTER XIV. 



LAND MONOPOLY. 



I now propose to devote a few lines to the all-impor- 
tant subject of land monopoly, hoping, by the time I am 
done with the subject, to convince the more thinking 
and liberal part of my readers that it is the chief cause 
of all those excesses of ignorance, poverty, servility, and 
crime found among men ; that it demands, and ever 
has had, for its gratification and support a " divine in- 
stitution;" that it is the origin, not only of all despotism, 
monarchy, war, and polygamy, but also of all slavery, 
either white or African. Hence those who oppose land 
reform do virtually encourage all the evils and vices 
known to human society. 

Yet I am well aware that I have undertaken an ar- 
duous and fruitless task, and, perhaps, might as well 
amuse myself by riding on a broomstick through the 
ethereal regions ; for it will be, I fear, as Dr. Combes 
says, in speaking of the difficulty of convincing the un- 
thinking and prejudiced, "stubbing the thorns and en- 
joying no harvest," but as I am used to only a meager 
harvest, will not despair, particularly as I consider it 
my duty to contribute my mite toward bringing about 
so desirable a reformation, a reformation without which 
the masses never can be emancipated, enlightened, and 
elevated — without which we never can become a truly 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 253 

civilized and christian people. " Man first appeared 
naked in the tropical climes, where food was cultivated 
by the industrious hand of nature ; but he soon clothed 
himself, and migrated to other crimes, being moved by 
the strong muscles and restless energies with which he 
was endowed. As soon as he advanced in civilization 
his connection with the products of the soil became 
more intimate; indeed, his individual possession of a cer- 
tain spot of ground was made necessary so soon as he 
forsook the barbarian or migratory life and settled in 
permanent habitations. 

"Previous to civilization, living, as he did, upon ani- 
mal food and such fruits as nature presented with- 
out cultivation, he could roam with almost as much 
freedom as the beasts he hunted down for food and 
raiment. But after he settled in permanent homes, he 
was thrown more directly upon the resources of that 
labor which he might expend in cultivating the soil. 
It was then that the question of individual possession of 
the soil arose. It was then that every one felt the 
necessity of having a portion of the earth set apart and 
recognized as his exclusive possession." 

It is, however, futile to speak of different states of 
society as manifesting more or less clearly the intimate 
connection of man with the soil ; for all mankind, in all 
climes and conditions, are dependent upon the earth 
for food, raiment, and habitation. Man's connection 
with the soil is as intimate as the connection of the dif- 
ferent organs of his own body. Separate but one vital 
organ, and the whole must perish. Sever man from the 
soil, make him an outcast from the earth, without a 



254 A TREATISE ON THE 

space that he can call his own, and he dies at once. 
He can not survive such violence, unless he be charit- 
ably taken under the roof, and bountifully fed upon the 
products of another man's labor. But only restore to 
him all his rights, and every one will rejoice in earn- 
ing his own living, desiring no aid from, and ownig no 
thanks to aristocrats nor to ancestral estates. 

Thus we find two great channels through which flow 
all the necessaries of life. These are land and labor ; the 
former produces all things when the latter is made 
freely and efficiently to operate upon it. It, therefore, 
strikes the reader at once that the most intimate and 
harmonious relations should exist between these two 
vital agents of production for the sustentation of hu- 
man life. It must follow that the least disturbance of 
these relations will produce, sooner or later, destructive 
consequences; for it is a law of nature that human life 
shall not be taken. It depends upon the food which 
grows of the soil, and it is an equally vital law that 
every one shall have an individual, independent, and in- 
alienable interest in the soil. " He takes my life," says 
Shakespeare, " who takes the means whereby I live." 
He, therefore, who monopolizes the land, robs some one 
else of his natural interest in the land, and consequently 
of his means of support. 

It is no palliation of this crime to say that there is 
land enough for all, even though I do take a thousand 
acres or several city lots. There is land enough, and 
always will be, under the land system of nature ; but 
there is not land enough, even now, under the monopoly 
system of society. The soil should be dedicated to 



INTELLECTUAL, MOKAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 255 

labor, and held sacred to its use alone. This is self- 
evident, for it meets the response of every head and 
every heart. 

The land calls for labor, and labor cries out for land 
on which to expend its energies for a useful purpose. 
The land does not belong to labor under the present 
laws of man ; for those who desire to work upon it are 
not freely permitted to do so according to the prompt- 
ings and unmistakable suggestions of nature and jus- 
tice. A price is put upon that which should no more 
have a pecuniary valuation than the air, the light, or the 
water. The naked man, as he comes from his Creator, 
has no means of paying a price, and therefore he is cut 
off from his natural connection with the soil ; hence he 
can not be admitted to the bosom of his mother earth, 
nor permitted to labor on the soil until he has hired out 
his bones and muscles, sold their use to the landlord or 
capitalist for a consideration, and accumulated enough, 
from his forced labor under an absolute master or des- 
pot, to pay the price which the law and false circum- 
stances have put upon the land. 

This earth is not the product of human labor; it was 
not created by man; it was provided by the Author of 
Nature ; it was not originally sold to any despot, or class 
of despots, by Almighty God, for and in consideration 
of the almighty dollar; it was made productive, and 
man was created to live upon its productions; it was 
adapted to the labor of man in dressing and cultivating 
it, and, therefore, in the order of nature, those who will 
labor should possess the earth ; and as all should pro- 



256 A TREATISE ON THE 

duee their own support in some way, all should have 
free access to a portion of the soil. 

Therefore, it is obvious from the foregoing fact that 
every man and woman born into this world has as nat- 
ural a right to food, raiment, education, and a fair share 
of the soil as they have to breath the common air, to 
drink of the cooling fountain, or to enjoy the genial 
rays of the sun, or as the wild deer and squirrel has to 
sip the waters of the mighty Mississippi or Amazon 
rivers. And the only reason why they are denied these 
inborn rights, is because the rich are allowed by mal- 
legislation to oppress the weak — is because the rich are 
allowed to prey upon the poor just as the wolf preys 
upon the innocent lambs. 

From this exclusion of man from the soil, flow all 
servitude and slavery, all poverty and ignorance, all 
crime and misery, that can proceed from so funda- 
mental and violent a breach in the system of nature and 
of God. The people are cast out from the earth and 
made pensioners on the bounty of the great monopolists, 
who wield their power by the force of legal wrong, of 
shrewd capacity, of unscrupulous conscience, thereby 
making labor unpleasant and repulsive. 

It is well settled that all a man produces by his own 
toil is his property against the world, our late slave 
laws to the contrary notwithstanding ; this is personal 
property, together with the improvements he may make 
on the land 

The authors agree that labor founds the right of 
property in every state of society, and that according to 
natural law, labor is the only original way of acquiring 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 257 

property; that the land is one of the elements of pro- 
duction, indispensable to the efficiency of labor, and 
therefore is the original and natural property of labor. 
That is, the use of the land ; for no one has a shadow 
of natural or just right to a foot of ground which he 
does not use. While he is in possession of a proper 
portion, it is his against the world; but when he forsakes 
it for another location his right to it is gone, and it then 
belongs to whoever may succeed him in its occupancy. 
This is the only true relation of man with the earth, and 
a recognition of this great principle is the only means 
of securing the use of the soil to all the people, and of 
making their labor far less, but yet more profitable, re- 
spectable, and pleasant. 

The amount of labor now exacted to secure the nec- 
essaries of life is far greater, severer, and more pro- 
tracted, day by day, than is demanded by the law of 
nature ; hence that which otherwise would be a real and 
continual pleasure is made a source of pain ; instead of 
being an object of delightful pursuit, it is one of almost 
constant and universal dread. 

It should, therefore, be an object with all natural or 
political economists, as well as of all statesmen and 
philanthropists, to inquire into the causes of this de- 
pression of labor, and to direct the manner in which the 
natural and pleasurable order in this behalf may be 
restored. 

Labor is the natural attraction by which man is drawn 
to the good and the true ; and if this chain, which binds 
man to his destiny, to progress, and to happiness, be 
broken, the whole moral world must necessarily be de- 



258 A TREATISE ON THE 

ranged and confounded. Not less disastrous to the 
material world would it be to break the chain of grav- 
itation which upholds the planetary system, than to in- 
vert the order of nature in the moral world. Order is 
maintained everywhere beyond the reach of man, and 
it is his duty to preserve it in the sphere of his own 
action. 

But it might be asked by some of my readers, what 
first gave rise to this land monopoly ? It originated in 
the feudal system, so-called, which prevailed about a 
thousand years ago among the barbarous nations — the 
Goths, Vandals, Huns, Lombards, etc., that overran the 
countries of Europe on the decline of the Roman em- 
pire. It was adopted eventually by most of the princes 
of Europe, and it is generally believed to have been 
first introduced into England by William the Conqueror. 

When the barbarians alluded to had made a conquest 
of the provinces of the Roman empire, the conquered 
lands were distributed by lot ; hence they were called 
allotted or allodial, and they were held in entire sov- 
ereignty by the different chieftains, without any other 
obligation existing between them than that of uniting, 
in case of war, for the common defense. The king, or 
captain-general, who led on his respective tribes to 
conquest, naturally received by far the largest portion 
of territory for his own share, and his principal fol- 
lowers, to whom he granted lands, bound themselves 
merely to render him military services. The example 
of the king was imitated by his courtiers, who distrib- 
uted, under similar conditions, portions of their estates 
to their dependents. Thus a feudal kingdom became a 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 259 

military establishment, and had the appearance of a 
victorious army encamped under its officers in different 
parts of the country, each captain or baron considering 
himself independent of his sovereign except during a 
period of national war. Possessed of wide tracts of 
country, and residing generally at a great distance from 
the capital, these barons or lords erected strong and 
gloomy castles or fortresses in places of difficult access, 
and not only oppressed the people and slighted the civil 
majesty of the state, but were often in a condition to 
set the authority of the crown itself at defiance. 

The fundamental principle of this system was, that 
the lands were originally granted out by the sovereign 
and were held of the crown. • The grantor was called 
lord, and those to whom he made grants were styled his 
feudatories or vassals. As military service was the only 
burden to which the feudatories were subjected, this 
service was esteemed honorable, and the names of free- 
man and soldier were synonymous. The great mass of 
the people, who cultivated the soil, were styled serfs, or 
villeins, and were in a state of miserable servitude. 
They were not permitted to bear arms nor suffered to 
leave the estates of their lords. The feudal government 
though well calculated for defense, was very defective in 
its provisions for the interior order of society. 

A kingdom resembled a cluster of confederated states, 
under a common head, and though the barons or nobles 
owed a sort of allegiance to the king, yet when obedi- 
ence was refused it could be enforced only by war. 
The bond of union being feeble, and the sources of dis- 
cord numerous, a kingdom often exhibited a scene of 



260 A TREATISE ON THE 

anarchy, turbulence, and war ; and such was, in fact, the 
state of Europe, with respect to interior government, 
from the seventh to the eleventh century. 

And thus has the land, which the God of Nature con- 
secrated to the use of man equally with the water and 
the air we breathe, been, in all ages of the world, per- 
verted from its legitimate use and made the means of 
serfdom, anarchy, despotism, and of wars and rebellions 
too numerous to mention. 

And, strange to tell, vast numbers of men claiming to 
be intelligent, moral, and religious still advocate the 
propriety of such an unnatural and barbarian system. 
Yes, barbarian from the fact it is just as cruel to de- 
grade, enslave, imprison, rob, and starve men now as it 
was a thousand years ago. 

As a further demonstration of the injustice and cru- 
elty consequent upon such monopoly, just observe the 
following figures and facts — facts which are but com- 
mon, in a greater or less degree, to all aristocratical and 
monarchial governments, and which must, as a natural 
consequence, soon be our condition : 

" In Great Britain there is land enough for twice the 
population, but monopoly throws nine-tenths of the 
people out of all ownership of the soil. Some of the 
nobility own whole counties in England, Ireland, and 
Scotland. The dukes of Sutherland, Buccleugh, and 
others hold a despotic dominion over more land than 
several millions of the people need to make them com- 
fortable and happy — millions who are miserable now in 
consequence of their monopoly. The first-named duke 
holds more than four millions of acres, and his numer- 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 261 

ous tenants, who toil to support his princely splendor, 
are forbidden to erect a church of their own on that wide 
domain ! He is a high churchman, while his tenants are 
dissenters ; and in this we see how land monopoly not 
only invades life and liberty, but freedom of thought 
and speech also. It requires no further argument to 
prove such monopoly one of the highest crimes — indeed, 
the crime of crimes." 

It has frequently been claimed by man that all was cre- 
ated for his good, and I suppose such men as the above- 
mentioned dukes, and tens of thousands of others in every 
country, must think that all was made for their good. 

" While man exclaims, See all things for my use! 
See man for mine, replies the pampered goose. 
And just as short of reason he must fall 
"Who thinks all made for one, not one for all." 

Nor are the above quoted outrages confined to Europe 
alone, for great numbers of individuals in the United 
States hold from one to a hundred thousand acres. 
Can there be any justice in any one man possessing such 
vast quantities of land? Indeed, no one man has any 
more right to possess even five or ten farms than he has 
to so many wives; because the first party deprives very 
many of ever owning homes absolutely, while the latter 
would forever oblige many worthy men to live without 
companions; the one being guilty of land piracy, the 
other of wholesale adultery — both great crimes before 
God and all wise, just, and benevolent men. 

Nevertheless, I am well aware that the reading public, 
as a general thing, has very little taste or interest in any 
such reformatory subjects, and that many of my readers 



262 A TREATISE ON THE 

will oppose me with, the following (and many other) so- 
called arguments: That the poor and landless possess 
very little emulation, energy, and industry; that they 
are careless, idle, and wasteful, out of the reach of re- 
demption; that the majority of them desire no homes, 
and that if we were to give them homes — were to divide 
to-morrow all the lands equally between them — in a 
short time more than the half of them would squander 
4 their shares and be as poor as ever. 

All this may be true, to some extent, owing to their 
present perverted natures — the legitimate work of land 
monopoly — of its oppressing and degrading conse- 
quences; yet such objections amount to mere gas and sub- 
terfuge, unworthy of a scholar, as I shall certainly prove. 
Vast numbers of them are, to some extent, deficient in 
the higher attributes of our nature, such as acquisitive- 
ness, emulation, self-esteem, veneration, order, etc. 
Hence they, by fixed and unvarying laws, seek their 
affinity, and consequently marry in and in, among 
themselves, transmitting on their unfortunate offspring 
their every quality; consequently, it would be even un- 
natural for them to be anything but just what they are. 
And it is an admitted fact in philosophy that like fol- 
lows like; therefore, if we had been born of just such 
parents, and had had just such entailments fastened on 
us, and had been raised under the same set of circum- 
stances and influences, we, our so-called intelligent, 
affluent, and noble'selves, would have been just as poor, 
ignorant, and ignoble as they are — would have had no 
more desire for industry, emulation, order, distinction, 
science, refinement, and bountiful homes than they have. 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 263 

Nor was it in the plan of Deity that all men should 
be born with the necessary business capacities to accu- 
mulate and retain property; that all should be born 
with avaricious, overreaching, and grasping disposi- 
tions; that all should belong to the iron-fingered-live- 
for-self-stock of bipeds. And it is well for society that 
we can not be so alike, as there would soon be an end 
to all invention, science, refinement, progress, and civili- 
zation, all for the want of such laborers and benefactors 
in the great field of humanity as our worthy school 
teachers, inventors, philosophers, authors, lecturers, 
journalists, mechanics, preachers, statesmen, etc. For, 
as a general thing, the latter class are men of limited 
means, whose noble and generous souls rise far above 
sordid avarice, refusing to live merely for themselves, 
but mostly for their race. And may God and all man- 
kind bless, nourish, and protect all inventors and re- 
formers, "for of such is the kingdom of heaven." 

But society, like everything else, requires, and ever 
must have, a variety of grades and distinctions; men for 
all purposes and vocations; men of various and conflict- 
ing opinions upon all subjects. It being only the 
abuses and excesses of the above-named wrongs and 
misfortunes about which the writer is complaining, for 
after we all shall have labored diligently and unitedly 
in suppressing the evils in society — in limiting the lands 
so as to provide comfortable domiciles and education for 
the masses — still there will remain enough and too much 
poverty, ignorance, servility, and crime. 

Nor is it possible for this poor and landless class to be 
ever reclaimed so long as the said causes shall continue 



264 A TREATISE ON THE 

to exist; no, never, until the people shall become more 
generally enlightened in regard to their proper relations 
to the soil and to society ; in regard to their natural 
rights; and also in relation to those great laws and in- 
fluences which underlie and control all their actions; 
never until they shall go to work in earnest by enacting 
laws^ to take effect in fifteen or twenty years, limiting 
every man to a certain amount of our common inherit- 
ance, say two hundred acres, more or less, according to 
location, quality, etc. Hence, every thousand acres, 
which now only provides one home, would produce for 
all time five homes, and every ten thousand, which many 
individuals now hold, would make fifty homes. And 
before this humane and christian law could take effect 
all things would grow into proper shape, no person being 
robbed of his property, and the poor no more to groan 
under the heel of the landed monopolist, but left and 
blessed with all the necessary means to work out his 
own salvation; therefore, we don't propose to so divide 
the lands or to give them homes ; we only insist that they 
enjoy their natural rights, by throwing around them the 
necessary protection, that they may soon rise to a 
higher and higher plane, no more to be the vassals of 
unfeeling landlords. 

In short, we only propose to extend to them a friendly 
hand, and say, Brothers, arise, arise, and be men ! 

It is true these large estates do not, at the decease of 
the holders, descend by the laws of entailment as in 
Europe, yet it is a fact, as a very general thing, that one 
or two of the sons, or sons-in-law, soon overreach or 
cheat all the rest out of their portions, and hastily 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 265 

become even greater shirks than their fathers had been. 
And so it goes, and ever will go, from bad to worse, 
until some such system of land reform shall be adopted. 
Yes, the rich must continue to grow richer and the 
poor poorer, until soon we will have an aristocracy of 
the hardest stripe ; and then it is but a short and easy 
step to monarchy, and which is just as sure to soon 
overtake this boasting people as that to-morrow's sun 
will set; because land monopoly and republicanism are 
incompatible elements; consequently, our so-called re- 
public is now but a practical aristocracy. Then why 
not do these things for the great cause of justice and 
humanity, for what advantage is this monopoly to any 
party in society ? The children of wealthy parents are 
universally indulged in idleness and extravagance, and 
gaze upon the great estates of their fathers, as the trav- 
elers do the pyramids of Egypt, with joy and admira- 
tion, until they become completely paralyzed; disquali- 
fied, as a general rule, for any profitable and honorable 
business; often dissipated and reckless, only fit to 
squander what they may inherit, and finally, perhaps, 
become a public charge. And the crazed father, having 
been for the last twenty or thirty years driven under the 
cruel lash of avarice, has finally lost about all his hu- 
manity ; for, generally, as a man's wealth expands his soul 
contracts. Yes, 

"Many a man, for love of self, 
To stuff his coffers, starves himself; 
Lahors, accumulates, and spares, 
To lay up ruin for his heirs ; 
Grudges the poor their scanty dole ; 
Saves everything — except his soull" 



266 A TREATISE ON THE 

And the general country is badly injured; great num- 
bers of avaricious and grasping nabobs wallowing in 
unnecessary wealth — living, many of them, in costly 
palaces, while multiplied thousands of poor and desti- 
tute citizens surround them, whiling away, in uncom- 
fortable hovels, an irksome and ignominious servitude ; 
vast tracts of wild and unimproved lands lying in 
and on the margins of hundreds of settlements, render- 
ing it impossible to have good roads, mills, schools, 
meeting houses, etc., which are always so necessary to 
meet the great ends of civilization; the farms grown 
up in thorns and thistles, the transient occupants having 
no interest in keeping them in order, or in repairing 
roads, bridges, etc. ; and the cities and towns all over 
stained with smoky and dilapidated houses, much to the 
annoyance of good citizens. 

So you see, everybody, the poor and the rich, the wise 
and the unwise, are seriously injured by this legalized 
but nefarious system of land piracy. Yet, notwithstand- 
ing, we find tens of thousands of intelligent and worthy 
citizens, high and low, the landed and the landless, in- 
cluding about three-fourths of our ministers, opposing 
land reform as an institution unjust and demoralizing 
in its effects — calculated to paralyze energy and enter- 
prise ; contending, and vociferously exclaiming, that so 
soon as individuals should reach their zenith (in land), 
they would become measurably indolent and worthless ; 
that society would soon retrograde for the want of 
proper stimulus. Now all this is mere quibble and 
sophistry, and only uttered by such as have never care- 
fully examined the subject, or by those whose heads are 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 2G7 

unfortunately deformed with the development of ac- 
quisitiveness. For the masses would never more than 
reach the amount of land allowed them, and would be 
content with that, as we now find them; and who are 
naturally our most pious, orderly, tasty, honest, and 
liberal citizens. While the more energetic, enterprising 
and exalted minds would soar far above sordid avar- 
ice, and find new and more noble fields in which to 
labor. Their active and restless spirits could not find 
rest and comfort in doing nothing; but they would 
now go to work as industriously as ever, distinguishing 
themselves by doing good for their race, for the unborn 
generations. 

Has man no higher destiny on this earth than to 
grind, degrade, enslave, drive, and starve his fellow- 
man? To accumulate and hoard up like some of the 
common animals? Did the God of Nature create these 
far-seeing and energetic minds merely to inflict his 
people with ignorance, degradation, and suffering? 
No, no ; but they were created to enlighten and sustain 
our race ; to teach and to legislate for the people ; to 
secure and maintain for them their inalienable and God- 
given rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happi- 
ness. Then only remove the unnatural and unholy 
obstruction, and such intelligent and noble minds will 
soon find and labor in their proper spheres. 

But the monopolists and their unthinking friends 
demur against all this — against all experience, justice, 
and common sense — and nervously exclaim that any 
system of land reform would be impolitic, unjust, and 
cruel; would rob men of their rights* 



268 A TREATISE ON THE 

They, like our late slaveholders, claim the right to 
be let alone while driving, degrading, and starving the 
poor but worthy citizens; while monopolizing, not only 
the land, but the minds and souls of men. And it is 
even so with our legalized, but insolent and soulless 
dram-sellers "of good moral character;" they too claim 
the right to be let alone; claim the right to debauch the 
husband, and to rob and starve the worthy mother and 
her helpless and destitute children; claim the right to 
demoralize and unchristianize the whole human family. 

Therefore, if this monopoly, with all its above- 
named excesses of ignorance, poverty, debauchery, 
slavery, war, and polygamy, be not morally and relig- 
iously wrong, and incompatible with true civilization, 
with justice and equality, with friendship, love, and 
truth, then there can not be anything sinful or criminal 
in all human actions. 

But the world is progressing; hence it is but a 
"green" philosopher who is not willing to wait — to 
wait a hundred, or even five hundred years. 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 269 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE GREAT ATLANTIC CABLE. 

" Two mighty lands have shaken hands 

Across the deep, wide sea; 
The world looks forward with new hope 

Of better times to be ; 
For, from our rocky headlands 

Unto the distant west, 
Have sped the messengers of love 

From kind old England's breast. 

14 And from America to us 

Hath come the glad reply, 
1 We greet you from our heart of hearts, 

"We hail the new-made tie; 
"We pledge again our loving troth, 

Which under heaven shall be 
As steadfast as Monadnoc's cliffs, 
And deep as is the sea.' 

Henceforth the east and west are bound 

By a new link of love; 
And as to Noah's ark there came 

The olive-bearing dove, 
So does this ocean telegraph, 

This manual of our day, 
Give hopeful promise that the tide 

Of war shall ebb away. 

No more, as in days of yore, 
Shall mountains keep apart; 

No longer oceans sunder wide 
The human heart from heart; 



270 A TREATISE ON THE 

.For man hath grasped the thunderbolt, 

And made of it a slave 
To do his errands o'er the land 

And underneath the wave. 

"Stretch on, thou wonder-working wire; 

Stretch north, south, east, and west, 
Deep down beneath the surging sea, 

High o'er the mountain's crest; 
Stretch onward without stop or stay, 

All lands and oceans span, 
Knitting with firmer, closer bonds 

Man to his brother man. 

"Stretch still on, thou wondrous wire; 

Defy space and time ; 
Of all the mighty works of men, 

Thou art the most sublime. 
On thee bright-eyed and joyous peace 

Her sweetest smile hath smiled, 
For side and side thou bring' st again 

The mother and the child. 

" Stretch on ! Oh, may a blessing rest 

Upon this wondrous deed ; 
This conquest where no tears are shed, 

In which no victims bleed. 
May no rude storm disturb thy rest, 

Nor quench the swift-winged fire 
That comes and goes at our command 

Along thy wondrous wire. 

"Long may'st thou bear the messages 

Of love from shore to shore, 
And aid all good men in the cause 

Of Him whom we adore ; 
For thou art truly but a gift 

By the All-bounteous given; 
The minds that thought, the hands that wrought, 

Were all bestowed bv heaven." 



INTELLECTUAL, MORAL, AND SOCIAL MAN. 271 

Most of the shadows that cross our path through 
life are caused by our standing in our own light. 

Sins are like circles in the water when a stone is 
thrown into it — one produces another. 

Even a viper should be killed with the least possible 
pain ; since this animal, so pernicious to man, did not 
provide for itself a hollow tooth, nor put poison at its 
root. 

A man who sincerely worships any object which he 
mistakes for his God is no more wanting in piety than 
a debtor who pays off a forged order is deficient in 
honesty. 

The dimensions of Noah's ark, as given by Prof. 
Hitchcock, are as follows : 450 feet long, 75 feet broad, 
and 45 feet high. Now zoologists estimate the number 
of the different species of animals and insects to be not 
less than 150,000 — 1,000 species of mammalia, 6,000 
species of birds, 2,000 species of reptiles, and 120,000 
species of insects. 

Circumstances and influences furnish the seeds of good 
or evil, and man is but the soil in which they grow. 



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